:-NRLF 


IN   THE   DAYS   OF   THE   COUNCH.S 


OF  THE  ^ 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


IN    THE    DAYS 
OF    THE    COUNCILS 

A   SKETCH   OF  THE   LIFE   AND  TIMES  OF 

BALDASSARE    COSSA 

(afterward    pope    JOHN    THE    T\VENTY-THIRD) 


BY 


EUSTACE    J.    KITTS 


30JIETIME    OF    THE    INDIAN    CIVIL    SERVICE 


ILLUSTRATED 


\^ 


Z-e>^-^^^^ 


OF  THE 


UNIVE 


ERSITY 


LONDON 
ARCHIBALD   CONSTABLE   AND   CO.  LTD. 

10  ORANGS  STREET  LEICESTER  SQUARE 

1908 


c 


INTRODUCTION 

This  work  is  an  attempt  to  tell  the  story  of  the  first  part  of 
the  life  and  times  of  one  of  the  most  picturesque  and  remark- 
able men  of  the  Middle  Ages,  Baldassare  Cossa,  who  on  the 
17th  May  1410  became  Pope  John  the  Twenty-third.  In 
order  accurately  to  appreciate  the  career  and  character  of 
this  churchman,  it  is  necessary  to  have  in  the  first  place  a 
clear  perception  of  the  state  of  the  Church  at  the  end  of  the 
fourteenth  century,  and  in  the  ^see6iad '  f 6  realise  its  position 
with  regard  to  the  Empire.  Pdr  the  continued  existence  of 
the  Holy  Roman  Empire  and  its  connection  with  the  Holy 
Roman  Church  are  the  two  cardinal  points  of  mediaeval  his- 
tory in  Europe.  In  the  days  of  Constantine  the  Great,  and 
for  some  centuries  after,  the  Empire  and  the  Church  were 
practically  conterminous ;  they  represented  the  same  body 
of  people  under  different  aspects ;  they  were  the  civil  and 
religious  sides  of  Christendom.  Later  on  they  were  typified 
as  the  Sun  and  the  Moon  in  the  heavens,  as  the  Two  Swords 
delivered  to  Saint  Peter;  but  the  theory  of  their  interdepend- 
ence was  not  fully  worked  out  until  their  connection  was  no 
longer  unchallenged  as  formerly.  The  connection  of  the  Empire 
and  the  Church  gave  rise  to  those  two  wonderful  fictions 
known  as  the  Donation  of  Constantine  and  the  Translation 
of  the  Empire.  When  Constantine  the  Great  moved  the 
seat  of  Empire  to  Byzantium  (327),  it  was  said  that  he  gave 
Italy,  some  even  maintained  that  he  made  over  all  the  nations 
of  Western  Europe,  to  Pope  Sylvester  and  his  successors ;  this 
was  the  so-called  Donation  of  Constantine.  Again,  when 
nearly  five  hundred  years  later  the  Empire  became  vacant 
on  the  death  of  Constantine  the  Sixth,  who  was  succeeded 
by  the  woman  Irene,  the  Empire  was  transferred  from  the 
Greeks  to  the  Franks,  when  Charles  the  Great  was  crowned 


192902 


vi      IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

Imperator  Augustus  at  Rome  on  Christmas  Day  800;  this 
was  the  Translation  of  the  Empire.     As  the  claims  of  the 
Papacy  widened,  the  former  fiction  was  found  to  be  rather 
inconvenient ;  but  nevertheless  a  belief  in  the  Donation  and 
in  the  Translation  remained  part  of  the  faith  of  most  orthodox 
churchmen  in  the  days  of  Baldassare  Cossa.     But  the  course 
of  history  had  gradually  made  the  theory  of  the  interdepend- 
ence   of  the  Church    and  Empire  no  longer  tenable  in    its 
entirety;    instead    of  mutual    co-operation    there    had    been 
deadly   feud;    and  the  former  relative  position   of  the  two 
powers  had  become  seriously  altered.     It  is  necessary  there- 
fore to  commence  by  giving  a  brief  sketch  of  the  status  of 
the    Holy   Roman   Empire    at    the    outbreak    of   the    Great 
Schism.     It   will   then  be  advisable  to  describe  the  state  of 
the   Church    at    this  time,  having  regard    to   the   efforts  at 
internal  reform;  for  the  life  of  Baldassare  Cossa  was  spent 
in  the  midst  of  these  endeavours.     They  were   unsuccessful; 
and  their  want   of  success  paved  the  way  for,  and  rendered 
necessary,  the  Protestant  Reformation  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury.    The  origin  of  the  Great  Schism  will  then   be  briefly 
noticed,  and  a  slight  description  given  of  the  civil  condition 
of  the  more  important  nations  of  Europe  at  that  time,  as 
introductory  to  the  years  when  Baldassare  Cossa  first  appeared 
in  the  arena  of  political  life ;  after  which  the  events  of  his 
life  and  times  will  be  treated  more  in  detail.     The  story  will 
be  one  of  Church  History ;  but  it  will  be  necessary  to  gather 
up  the  threads  of  the  history  of  other  countries  so  far  as  they 
are  connected  therewith,  the  history   of  the  diff'erent  states 
of  Italy,  and   of  the   kingdoms  of  Germany,  Hungary,  and 
France ;  in  other  words,  as  Carlyle  says,  '  We  shall  be  obliged 
(what  is  our  grand  difficulty  in  this  History)  to  note,  in  their 
order,  the  series  of  European  occurrences '  in  so  far  as  they 
are  connected  with  the  story  of  the  life  of  Baldassare  Cossa. 
In   the  main  the  chronological  sequence  of  events  has  been 
observed  ;  but  this  has  been  impossible  in  every  instance ;  and 
for  a  similar  reason  it  has  been  impossible  to  avoid  referring 
to    some  few   events  twice  over.     I  have  finished  the   story, 
for  the  present,  at  the  death  of  Pope  Alexander  the  Fifth ; 
and   althouQ-h   with  the  advent  of  a  new   ruler  of  the   Holy 


INTRODUCTION  vii 

Roman  Empire  a  great  change  comes  over  the  spirit  of 
the  action,  still  I  am  painfully  aware  that  I  have  merely 
reached  a  '  conclusion  in  which  nothing  is  concluded/  It 
is  my  hope  in  the  future,  if  life  and  health  are  spared,  to 
complete  the  story  of  the  Life  and  Times  of  Pope  John  the 
Twenty-third  ;  but  the  material  is  abundant,  and  opportunity 
intermittent.  As  regards  what  I  have  done,  I  may  use  the 
words  of  one  who  wrote  four  hundred  years  ago :  '  How  be  it, 
I  truste  my  svmple  reason  hath  ledde  to  the  understandynge 
of  the  true  sentence  of  the  mater  .  .  .  desyrynge  all  the 
reders  and  herers  therof  to  take  this  my  rude  "  work  "  in  gre, 
and  vf  anv  faute  be,  to  laye  it  to  myn  unconnynge  and  derke 
ignoraunce,  and  to  mynysshe,  adde  or  augment  as  they  shall 
fynde  cause  requysyte.  And  in  theyr  so  doynge  I  shall  pray 
to  God  that  after  this  vayne  and  transytory  lyfe  he  may 
brynge  them  unto  the  perdurable  joye  of  heven.     Amen.' 

EUSTACE  J.  KITTS. 

EVERSLEIGH,    HeENE, 

Worthing. 


LISTS   OF  RULERS 


THE    POPES 


Nicolas  I. 
Gregory  vii. 
Victor  III.     . 
Urban  ii. 
Paschal  ii.    . 
Gelasius  ii.  . 
Calixtus  II.  . 
Honorius  ii. 
Innocent  ii. 
Celestine  ii. 
Lucius  II. 
Eugenius  iii. 
Hadrian  iv.  . 
Alexander  iii. 
Lucius  III.    . 
Urban  iii.     . 
Gregory  viii. 
Clement  iii. 
Celestine  iii. 
Innocent  iii. 
Honorius  iii. 
Gregory  ix. 
Celestine  iv. 
Innocent  iv. 


858-867 
1073-1085 
1086-1087 
1088-1099 
1099-1118 
1118-1119 
1119-1124 
1124-1130 
1130-1143 
1143-1144 
1144-1145 
1145-1153 
1153-1159 
1159-1181 
1181-1185 
1185-1187 
1187-1187 
1187-1191 
1191-1198 
1198-1216 
1216-1227 
1227-1241 
1241-1241 
1243-1254 

N.B. — Anti-popes  om 


Alexander  iv. 
Urban  iv. 
Clement  ix. 
Gregory  ix. 
Innocent  v. 
Hadrian  v. 
John  XIX. 
Nicolas  III. 
Martin  iv. 
Honorius  iv, 
Nicolas  IV. 
Celestine  v. 
Boniface  viii. 
Benedict  x. 


The  Popes  at  Avignon 


Clement  v.  . 

John  XXII.    . 
I  Benedict  xii. 
I  Clement  vi. 
[  Innocent  vi. 
i  Urban  v. 
!  Gregory  xi. 

itted  in  the  above  list. 


1254-1261 
1261-1265 
1265-1269 
1271-1276 
1276-1276 
1276-1276 
1276-1276 
1277-1281 
1281-1285 
1285-1289 
1289-1292 
1294-1294 
1294-1303 
1303-1305 


1306-1314 
1316-1334 
1334-1342 
1342-1352 
1352-1362 
1362-1370 
1370-1378 


Urban  vi. 
Boniface  ix. 
Innocent  vii. 
Gregory  xii. 


THE  POPES  DURING  THE  SCHISM 

The  Popes  at  Rome. 

.     April  18,  1.378-Oct 


Nov. 
Oct. 
Nov. 


11,  1389-Oct. 
17,  1404-Nov. 


15,  1389 
1,  1404 
5,    1406 


30,  140G-June  15,  1415 


X 


IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 


The  Popes  at  Avignon. 


Clement  vii.  , 

.     Sept.  20,  1378-Sept.  16, 

1394 

Benedict  xiii. 

.     Sept.  28,  1394-July  26, 
The  Popes  of  the  Council. 

1417 

Alexander  v. 

.     June  26,  1409-May    4,  1410 

John  XXIII.     . 

.     May   17,  1410-May  29,  1415 

Kings  of  Germany. 

Kings  of  France. 

Otto  I.           .         .         . 

936-973 

Hugh  Capet 

987-996 

Otto  II. 

973-983 

Robert 

996-1031 

Otto  III. 

983-1002 

Henry  i. 

1031-1060 

Henry  n. 

1002-1024 

Philip  I. 

1060-1108 

Conrad  ii. 

1024-1039 

Louis  VI. 

1108-1137 

Henry  iii. 

1039-1056 

Louis  VII. 

1137-1180 

Henry  iv. 

1056-1106 

Philip  Augustus  . 

1180-1225 

Henry  v. 

1106-1125 

Louis  VIII.    . 

1225-1226 

Lothair  ii. 

1125-1188 

Louis  IX.  (Saint)  . 

1226-1270 

Conrad  iii. 

1138-1152 

Philip  III.     . 

1270-1285 

Frederic  i. 

1152-1190 

Philip  IV.  (the  Fair) 

1285-1314 

Henry  vi. 

1190-1196 

Louis  X. 

1314-1316 

Otto  IV. 

1196-1215 

John  I. 

1316-1316 

Frederic  ii. 

1215-1250 

Philip  V. 

1316-1322 

Rudolf  (Habsburg) 

1275-1292 

Charles  iv.   . 

1322-1328 

Adolf  (Nassau)     . 

1292-1298 

Philip  VI. 

1328-1350 

Albert  i. 

1298-1308 

John  II. 

1350-1364 

Henry  vii.    . 

1308-1313 

Charles  v.    . 

1364-1380 

Louis  (Bavaria)    . 

1313-1347 

Charles  vi.  . 

1380-1422 

Charles  iv.  . 

1346-1378 

Kings  of  Nap 

liES. 

Kings  of  Hln 

3ARY. 

Charles  i.  (of  Anjou) 

1265-1285 

Carobert 

.     1310-1342 

Charles  ii.  (the  Lame) 

.     1285-1309 

Louis  the  Great   . 

.     1342-1382 

Robert 

.     1309-1343 

Maria  . 

1382-1385 

Joanna  i. 

.      1343-1382 

Charles  (Durazzo) 

.     1385-1386 

Charles  iii.  (Durazzo) 

.     1382-1386 

Sigismund    . 

.      1387-1437 

Ladislas 

.     1386-1414 

Kings  of  Castile. 
Peter  (the  Cruel)  .     1350-1369 


Henry  ii. 
John  I. 
Henry  iii. 
John  II. 


1369-1379 
1379-1391 
1391-1407 
1407-1454 


Kings  of  Aragon. 

Peter  IV.       .  .         .     1336-1387 

John  I.         .  .         .     1387-1395 

Martin          .  .         .     1395-1412 


GENEALOGICAL  TREES 


XI 


I 

Charles  iv. 

Emperor 

(1346-1378). 


GENEALOGICAL     TREES 

THE  HOUSE  OF  LUXEMBURG 

Henry  vii.,  Emperor  (1308-1313). 
Jolin  of  Bohemia,  d.  1346. 


I 
Bona,  m.  John  ii. 
of  France. 


John  Henry  of  Mor- 
avia, m.  Margaret 
Maultasch. 
I 


Wenzei  of  Luxem- 
burg. 


"Wenzel.     Sigismund.     John  of  Goerlitz. 

I 

Elizabeth,  in. 

Anthony  of 

Brabant. 


Jost. 


Prokop. 


Charles  v. 
(1364-1380). 


THE  VALOIS  LINE 

John  II.  (1350-1364). 


Louis  I.  of  Anjou, 
d.  1384. 


Jean,  D. 
Berri. 


Philip,  D. 

Burgundy. 


Isabella,  m.  Gian 
Galeazzo. 


Charles  vi.        Louis,  D. 

(1380-1422),  Orleans,  m. 

m.  Isabel  of       Valentine 

Bavaria.  Yisconti. 


Louis  II.  of     Jean  sans  Peur, 
Anjou.  D.  Burgund}-. 


Antony  of  Brabant, 

m.  Elizabeth  of 

Goerlitz. 


KINGS  OF  NAPLES  AND  OF  HUNGARY 

Charles  i.  (brother  of  Louis  ix.)  of  Aujou  (1265-1285). 

I 
Charles  ii.  the  Lame  (1285-1309),  m.  Mary  of  Hungary. 

(Hungary)  |  (Naples)        (Tarentum) (Durazzo) 


Charles  Martel 
(1290-1301). 


Carobert 
(1310-1342). 


Robert  i. 
(1309-1343). 


Charles  of 
Calabria. 


Philip  II. 


John. 


Louis,  VI.       Charles  of         Louis  of 
Joanna  i.        Durazzo.  Gravina. 

of  Naples.  ,  i 


Louis  the  Great    Andrew,  m.  .Joanna  i.  (1343-1.382),  m. 


(1342-1382). 


Maria,  m. 

Sigiemund  of 

Hunsarv. 


(1)  Andrew  of  Hungary. 

(2)  Louis  of  Tarentum. 

(3)  James  of  Jlajorca. 

(4)  Otto  of  Brunswick. 


Margaret,  m.  Charles  ni. 
(1381-1386). 


Hedwig,  »i. 

Jagellon,  alias 

La<li.s!as  of  Poland. 


Ladislas. 


Joanna  11. 


xii     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 


MEMORANDUM  OF  ABBREV^IATIONS 

N.B. — The  following  abbreviations  have  been  used  for  the  authorities 
more  frequently  cited  in  the  notes  and  references. 


A.S.I. 
a.mmirato. 

aschbach. 

Barante. 

Bess. 

Biog.  Univ. 
Bonet-Maury. 
boucicaut. 


Brieoer. 


burckhardt. 

Bryce. 
Capes. 

Capponi. 

Chastenet. 

Christophe. 

C1ACONIU8. 

COVILLE. 


Archivio  Storico  Italiano,  1843. 

Ammirato^  Scipione :  Istorie  Florentine.  7  vols., 
1853. 

Aschbach,  Joseph  :  Geschichte  Kaiser  Sigmunds. 
4  vols.,  1838. 

Barante,  M.  de :  Histoire  des  Dues  de  Bourgogne  de 
la  Maison  de  Valois.     14  vols.,  1826. 

Bess,  Bernhard  :  Frankreicha  Kirchenpolitik,  1891. 

Biographie  Universelle,  ancienne  et  modeme  (Michaud). 

Bonet-Maury,  G.  :  Gerard  de  Groote,  1878. 

Collection  Uiiiverselle  des  Memoires  particuliers  relatifs 
a  r histoire  de  France  :  tome  vi. — Livre  des  f aits  du 
bon  Messire  Jean  le  Meingre,  dit  Boucicaut. 

Brieger :  Zeitschrift  fuer  Kirchengeschichte ,  con- 
taining— 

ix.,  X.  Sauerland  :  Cardinal  Johannes  Dominici. 

xxi.  Blumenthal  :  Johann  XXIII. 

XXV.  Bess :  Frankreich  und  sein  Papst  von  1378 
bis  1894. 

xxviii.  Sommerfeldt :  Fine  Invektive  aus  der  Zeit  des 
Pisaner  Konzils. 

Burckhardt,  Jacob :  The  Civilisation  of  the  Renais- 
sance in  Italy  ;  tr.  Middlemore.     1904. 

Bryce,  James  :  The  Holy  Roman  Empire.     1904. 

Capes,  W.  W.  :  The  English  Church  in  the  Four- 
teenth and  Fifteenth  Centuries.     1900. 

Capponi,  Giiio  :  Storia  della  Repubblica  di  Firenze. 
1875. 

Chastenet,  Bourgeois  de :  Nouvelle  Histoire  du  Con- 
cile  de  Constance.     1718. 

Christophe,  L'Abbe  J.-B.  :  Histoire  de  la  PapautS 
pendant  le  mv^  siecle.     3  vols.,  1853. 

Ciaconius,  Alphonsus  :  Vitae  et  res  gestae  Pontificum. 
4  vols.,  1677. 

Coville,  Alfred  :  Les  Cabochiens  et  I'Ordonnance  de 
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Xlll 


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The   Decameron  ;    tr.    Rigg;. 


Creirhton.  Crei^hton,    M. 

1897. 
Decameron.  Boccaccio,    Giovanni 

2  vols.,  1900. 
De  Schismate.  Thcodorici   de   Nyem   de   Schismate   Lihri   trea ;    ed. 

Georgius  Erler.     Leipzig,  1890. 
Duchesne.  Duchesne:  Liher  Pontificalus.     2  vols.,  1886-92. 

Ehrle.  Archw  fuer  Litteratur-    and   Kirchen-G eschichte  des 

Mittelalters,  1889-1900,  containing— 
Ehrle  :    Aus  den  Aden  des  Afterconcils  Perpignan, 

1408  ;  Neue  Materialmen  xur  Geschichte  Peters  von 

Luna ;  and  Die  kirchenrechtlichen  Schri/ten  Peters 

von  Luna. 
Erler.  Erler,  Georg :  Dietrich  von  Nieheim.     1887. 

FiNKE.  Finke,     Heinrich  :      Acta     Concilii     Constantiensis. 

1896. 
Frati.  Frati,  Lodovico  :  La  Vita  Privata  di  Bologna.     1900, 

Freeman.  Freeman,  Edward  A.  :  Historical  Es.mys.     1886. 

Froissart.  Froissart,    The    Chronicles  of;   tr.    Berners   (Tudor 

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Gardner.  Gardner,    Edmund   G.  :    Saint   Catherine   of  Siena. 

1907. 
Ghirar.  Delia   Historia   di  Bologna  del  R.   P.   M.   Cherubino 

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xiv     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

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Mansi.  Mansi,  Joannes  Dominicus  :   Sacrorum  Conciliorum 

nova  et  amplissima  coUectio. 
Martene.  Martene  and  Durand  :  Thesaurus  Novus  A necdotoruin. 

1717. 
Martin.  Martin,    Henri  :     Histoire    de    France.      17    vols., 

1885. 
Matthew  Paris.        Matthew  Vavis's  Fngli.^h  History ;  tr.  Giles.     3  vols., 

1852. 
Michelet.  Michelet :  Histoire  de  France.      19  vols. 

MiLMAN.  Milman,  Henry  Hart :    History  of  Latin  Christianity. 

9  vols.,  1883. 
Monstrelet.  Moustrelet :   Chronique  de  1400  a  1444.      1848. 

MuR.  Ludovicus  Antouius  Muratorius  :  Rerum  Italicarum 

Scriptores.     Milan,  24  vols.,  1738. 
Palacky,  Palacky,   Franz  :   Geschichte  von  Boehmen.      7  vols., 

1836, 


ABBREVIATIONS 


XV 


Pastor.  Pastor,  Ludwig :  history  of  the  Popes  ;  ed.  Antrobus. 

6  vols.,  1899. 
Platina.  Platina,   Baptista :   Lives  of  the  Popes  ;  tr.  Rycaut. 

1G88. 
Poole.  Poole,  Reginald  Lane  :   Illustrations  of  the  History  of 

Mediceval  Thought.     1884. 
Rashdall.  Rashdall,   Hastings  :  The   Universities  of  Europe  in 

the  Middle  Ages.     2  vols.,  1895. 
Rausier.  Historisches  Taschenhuch,  begruendet  von  Friedrich 

von  Raumer.      Leipzig,   1889  :   containing  Erler, 

Dr.   Georg  :  Florenz,   Neapel  und  das  paepstliche 

Schisnia. 
Raynaldus.  Raynaldus,  Ordericus  :  Annales  Ecclesiastici.     1747- 

1756. 
Reinke.  Reinke,  Georg :  Frankreich  und  Papst  Johann  XXIII. 

1900. 
Religieux.  Documents  Inedits  sur  I'Histoirede  France:  Chroni- 

que  du  Religieux  de  Saint-Denys ;  ed.  Bellaguet. 

6  vols.,  1842. 
Renan.  Renan,  Ernest :  Nouvelles  ttudes  d'Histoire  religieuse. 

1899. 
RiEZLER.  Riezler,  Sigmund  :  Die  Literarischen  Widersacher  der 

Paepste.     Leipzig,  1874. 
RocQUAiN.  Rocquain,     Felix  :     Lu    Papautt     au    Moyen    Age. 

1881. 
Roem.  Quart.  Roemische  Quartalschrift,  1894  :  containing  Schmitz, 

L.  :  Die   Quellen  zur  Geschichte   des   Konzils  von 

Cividale,  1409. 
Sabatier.  Sabatier,     Paul  :      Vie     de     S.     Fran(,ois    d' Assise. 

1905. 
Salembier.  Salembier,  Ludovicus  :  Petrus  ah  Alliaco.     1886. 

Sauerbrei.  Sauerbrei,    Moritz :    Die   italienische  Politik   Koenig 

Sigmunds.     1898. 
Schwab.  Schwab,  Johann  Baptist :  Johannes  Gerson.     1858. 

SissiONDi  (F.).  Sismondi,   Simonde   de  :   Histoire  des  Fruncais.    33 

vols. 
Sismondi  (/.  i?.).        Sismondi,    Simonde    de :    Histoire   des    Repuhliques 

Italiennes  du  Moyen  Age.     10  vols.,  1840. 
Stevenson.  Stevenson,    Francis    Seymour :    Robert    Grosseteste, 

1899. 
Sybel.  Sybel :     Historische    Zeitschrift,    1875  :     containing 

Sauerland,  H.  B.  :  Gregor  XII.   von  .seiner  Wahl 

bis  zum  Vertrage  von  Marseille. 
Symonds.  Symonds,  John  Addington  :    Renaissance  in   Italy : 

The  Age  of  the  Despots.     1897. 
Tartini.  Renim  Itulicarum  Scriptores.     Florence,  1770 :  con- 

taining Cronica  di  Piero  Minerbetti, 


xvi     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

TscHACKERT.  Tschsckert,  Paul :  Peter  von  Ailli.     1877. 

Ullman.  Ullman,  C.  :   Reformers  before  the  Reformation ;  tr. 

Menzies.     2  vols.,  1860. 
Valois,  Valois,  Noel :  La  France  et  le  Grand  Schisme  d'Occi- 

dent.     4  vols.,  1896. 
Wylie.  Wylie,  James  Hamilton  :  History  of  England  under 

Henry  the  Fourth.     4  vols.,  1884. 
Yriabte.  Yriarte,   Charles :     Uii    Condottiere   au    xv'    Steele. 

1882. 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS 

THE  INTRODUCTION,  contaiuiug  the  plan  of  the  work, 

LISTS  OF  RULERS 
The  Popes,  . 
Kings  of  Germany, 
Kings  of  France, 
Kings  of  Naples, 
Kings  of  Hungary, 
Kings  of  Castile, 
Kings  of  Aragou,     . 

GENEALOGICAL  TREES 

The  House  of  Luxemburg, 
The  Valois  Line  in  France, 
Kings  of  Naples  and  of  Hungary, 

MEMORANDUM  OF  ABBREVIATIONS 

The  abbreviations  used  for  the  authorities  more  frequently  cited 
in  the  notes  and  references,      ..... 


FAOB 
V 


CHAPTER  I 

THE    HOLY    ROMAN    EMPIRE 

Charles  the  Great.  The  Holy  Roman  Empire.  The  Donation 
of  Constantino  and  the  False  Decretals.  Otto  the  Great. 
The  ^\'orld-Empire  and  the  World-Religion.  The  emblem 
of  the  Soul  and  the  Body.  Rise  of  the  Papacy.  Hildebrand. 
The  humiliation  of  Canossa.  The  Donation  of  Charlemagne 
and  the  strife  as  to  the  Investitures.  Frederic  Barbarossa. 
Innocent  the  Third  and  the  plenitudo  potestatis.  Frederic 
the  Second  and  the  Fall  of  the  Hohenstaufen.  The  Great 
Interregnum.      The  Bull    Unum  Sanctnm.      Pretensions  of 

h 


xviii     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

PAO 

the  Papacy  pushed  to  the  uttermost.  Boniface  the  Eighth 
and  Philip  the  Fair.  Pierre  du  Bois  and  John  of  Pai-is. 
Jordan  of  Osnabruck  and  Dante.  Lupoid  of  Bebeuburg. 
The  Babylonish  Captivity.  John  the  Twenty-second  and 
Louis  of  Bavaria.  The  sentiment  of  nationality.  Marsiglio 
of  Padua  and  the  Defensor  Pads.  Louis  of  Bavaria  at  Rome. 
William  of  Ockham.  Death  of  Louis  of  Bavaria.  The 
Emperor  Charles  the  Fourth.     The  Golden  Bull, 


CHAPTER  II 

THE    HOLY    ROMAN    CHURCH 
(/)  Its  Popular  Side 

The  universal  religion.  The  universal  language.  The  Holy 
Roman  Church  in  the  days  of  its  greatest  splendour  and 
glory.  The  Church  as  a  temporal  power.  The  Church 
as  landowner.  Its  power  in  Germany.  Courts  spiritual. 
Employment  of  the  clergy.  Church  festivals.  Feast  of 
the  Ass.  German  village  festivals.  The  Church  as  School- 
master.    The  Church  as  Physician,     .  .  .  .35 

(//)  Seculars  and  Regulars 

Effects  of  Hildebrand's  reforms.  The  thirteenth  century. 
The  Papacy  at  Avignon.  Social  and  moral  corruption. 
Financial  needs  of  the  Pope.  The  Papal  revenues.  Moral 
reputation  of  the  Popes.  Character  of  the  Cardinals.  The 
Bishops.  AVorldly  character  of  the  Bishops.  The  necessity 
for  'Caesarian  clergy.'  The  Bishops  in  Germany.  The 
Archdeacons.  The  rural  Deans.  The  spirit  of  insubordina- 
tion. The  beneficed  clergy.  The  parish  priests.  Parish 
priests  in  England.  The  ^Monasteries.  The  Nunneries. 
The  Friars  of  the  Four  Orders,  ....         55 

(///)  Heresy  and  Reform 

Heresy  in  the  twelfth  century.  Albigeuses,  Paterines,  or 
Cathari.  ^V^aldenses  or  Poor  Men  of  Lyons.  The  Franciscans. 
Destruction  of  heresy  in  France.  Heresy  in  Spain.  Heresy 
in  Italy.  John  ^V'yclif.  Heresy  in  Germany.  The  Flagel- 
lants, Dancers,  Beghards,  and  others.  The  German  mystics. 
Reason  and  faith.  Gerhard  Groot.  His  teaching.  The 
Brethren  of  the  Common  Life.  Florentius  Radewin.  The 
Canons  of  the  Common  Life.  Conrad  Waldhauser.  Milic. 
Mathias  of  Janow.     The  University  of  Paris,  .  .         82 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS  xix 

CHAPTER  III 

THE    GKKAT    SCHISM 

PAGE 

Death  of  Gregory  the  Eleventh.  Necessity  for  the  return  to 
Rome.  Peace  conference.  Election  of  the  new  Pope. 
Urban  the  Sixth.  The  Great  Schism.  Its  effect  on  the 
political  and  ecclesiastical  worlds.  France  and  the  Schism. 
The  Cardinals  and  the  Schism.  State  of  Western  Europe. 
Three  young  Kings.  Insanity  of  the  French  King.  Sloth 
of  King  Wenzel.  Civil  schism  in  Germany.  Social  and 
moral  condition  of  Italy.  Political  development  of  Italy. 
The  Kingdom  of  Naples.  'Pax  vobiscum.'  Society  in  the 
Middle  Ages.  Social  condition  of  France,  Germany,  and 
England.  The  Black  Death  and  after.  Duty  of  the  Em- 
peror in  reference  to  the  Schism.  Plan  of  General  Council. 
Difficulties.  Scepticism  and  mistrust  consequent  on  the 
Schism.  Anti-papal  spirit  in  the  University  of  Paris.  Theo- 
logy of  Pierre  d'Ailly,  ....••       105 


CHAPTER  IV 

BALDASSARE    COSSA 

Neapolitan  nobility.  Family  of  Baldassare  Cossa :  his  birth. 
Piracy  in  early  life.  Habit  of  late  rising.  Choice  of  the 
Church  as  a  profession.  The  '  way  of  fact.'  The  expedition 
of  the  first  Duke  of  Anjou.  Urban  the  Sixth  and  Charles  of 
Durazzo.  Death  of  Urban  the  Sixth.  The  University  of 
Bologna.  Cossa  at  Bologna.  His  contemporaries.  Election 
of  the  new  Pope.  Boniface  the  Ninth.  Expedition  of  the 
second  Duke  of  Anjou.  Costliness  of  the  'way  of  fact.' 
Theological  Faculty  of  the  University  of  Paris.  Overtures 
of  Boniface.  Coffer  in  the  Cloister  of  the  Mathurins. 
Death  of  Clement  the  Seventh.  Election  of  the  new  Pope 
at  Avignon.  Cossa,  Archdeacon  of  the  University  of  Bol- 
ogna. Politics  of  Bologna.  Cossa  in  the  field.  Cossa 
private  chamberlain.  The  Jubilee.  Cossa's  work  as  private 
chamberlain.  John  of  Nassau.  First  black  score  against 
King  Ladislas.  Character  of  Ladislas.  Dietrich  von  Niem. 
Cossa's  simony  and  sensuality.     His  real  character,    .  .       140 


XX      IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

CHAPTER  V 

THE    WAY    OF    CESSION 

PAGE 

Three  parties  in  Church  politics  in  France.  Benedict  the  Thir- 
teenth. Altered  relations  hetween  France  and  the  Pope. 
'  Way  of  cession.'  Embassy  of  the  royal  dukes.  Benedict 
refuses  to  accept  the  'way  of  cession.'  Results  of  the  em- 
bassy. Justification  of  the  refusal  of  the  'way  of  cession.' 
The  'way  of  convention.'  French  embassies  to  other 
European  courts.  Want  of  continuity  in  French  policy. 
Robert  the  Hermit.  Embassy  of  the  three  Kings.  Diet  of 
Frankfurt.  Meeting  of  Wenzel  and  Charles :  embassy  of 
Pierre  d'Ailly.  D'Ailly  at  Rome.  The  subtraction  of 
obedience.  Froissart's  account  of  D'Ailly's  mission  to  Avig- 
non. Palace  of  the  Popes  at  Avignon.  Siege  of  the  Palace. 
The  siege  raised.  Cardinals  in  Paris.  Effects  of  the  subtrac- 
tion of  obedience.  The  White  Penitents.  Deposition  of 
King  Wenzel.  Rupert^  King  of  the  Romans.  The  schism 
in  the  Empire.  Rupert's  unsuccessful  invasion  of  Milan. 
Rupert's  election  confirmed  by  the  Pope.  The  restitution  of 
obedience.  Escape  of  Pope  Benedict.  Obedience  restored. 
Reconciliation  with  the  Pope,  .....       171 

CHAPTER   VI 

BOLOGNA 

Appointment  of  Baldassare  Cossa  as  Papal  Legate  at  Bologna. 
Gian  Galeazzo  sole  Lord  of  Lombardy.  Acquires  Pisa  and 
other  cities.  Bentivoglio  becomes  Lord  of  Bologna.  Gian 
Galeazzo  acquires  Bologna.  Death  of  the  Duke  of  Milan. 
The  army  of  the  allies  before  Bologna.  Bologna  restored  to 
the  Church.  Discontent  of  Florence.  Description  of  Bologna. 
Work  and  taxes.  Games  of  chance.  Women  of  pleasure. 
Unpopularity  of  the  Legate.  The  heirs  of  the  Duke  of_^ 
Milan,  Treason  in  Bologna.  Purchase  of  Faenza.  Pope"" 
Benedict  after  his  imprisonment.  '  Via  conventionis.'  Ger- 
son's  New  Year's  sermon.  Benedict's  embassy  to  Rome. 
Death  of  Boniface  the  Ninth.  Negotiations  before  the  elec- 
tion of  a  new  Pope.  Cosmato  de'  Megliorati.  Extension  of 
the  obedience  of  Benedict.  Benedict's  journey  to  Genoa. 
Papal  exactions  in  France.  Fourth  council  of  the  clergy  at 
Paris.  Speech  of  Pierre  d'Ailly.  Renewal  of  the  subtrac- 
tion of  obedience.  Reign  of  Pope  Innocent  the  Seventh. 
Cossa  at  Bologna.  War  with  the  Constable.  Rise  of  the 
party  of  neutrality  in  Germany  under  John  of  Nassau.' 
Benedict  in  the  Riviera,  .....       210 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS  xxi 


CHAPTER   VII 

THE    WAY    OF    CONVENTION 

FAQS 

The  election  of  the  new  Pope  at  Rome.  Augelo  Corrario. 
Gregory's  initial  resolution  to  resign.  Bologna  as  a  meeting- 
place  for  the  Popes.  Gregory's  letter  to  Benedict.  The 
embassy  to  Benedict.  The  Treaty  of  Marseilles.  Probable 
result  of  a  convention.  The  embassy  from  Paris.  Savona. 
French  embassy  reaches  Aix.  Received  by  Benedict  at 
Marseilles.  Public  audience.  Demand  for  a  Bull.  Am- 
bassadors in  a  quandary.  Benedict's  reason  for  refusing  a 
Bull.  Departure  of  the  embassy.  Bull  of  excommunication 
prepared.  The  nephews  of  Pope  Gregory.  French  embassy 
at  Rome.  Gregory's  want  of  money.  Negotiations  with  the 
French  embassy.  Final  reply  of  the  Pope.  Benedict  ob- 
serves the  Treaty  of  Marseilles.  Attempt  of  Ladislas  on 
Rome.  Gregory  goes  to  Siena.  His  embassy  at  Savona. 
Assassination  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans.  Porto  Venere.  Pope 
Gregory  at  Lucca :  negotiations.  Rome  taken  by  Ladislas, 
The  news  reaches  Lucca.  Predominance  of  Ladislas.  Gregory 
creates  new  cardinals.  The  old  cardinals  desert  Gregory. 
Benedict  and  Boucicaut.  Breach  with  France.  Pope's  Bull 
torn  to  pieces.  Benedict  sends  four  cardinals  to  Leghorn. 
Original  proposal  for  a  General  Council.  Misapprehension  of 
Benedict  as  to  the  proposal.  Benedict  leaves  Porto  Venere. 
Gregory's  cardinals  withdraw  their  obedience.  Gregory 
leaves  Lucca.  '^  Way  of  a  Council.'  Baldassare  Cossa  the 
author  of  the  Council  of  Pisa.  Horeuce  offers  Pisa  for  the 
Council.     The  rival  Popes  invited,       ....       247 


CHAPTER   VIII 

TWO    MINOR    COUNCILS 

Attitude  of  the  Popes.  The  ^conclusions'  of  the  University  of 
Bologna.  Pierre  d'Ailly  and  Jean  jQerson  on  the  proposed 
Council.  Opposition.  Rupert,  King  of  the  Romans.  The 
Diet  at  Frankfurt.  King  Wenzel.  The  University  of 
Prague.  Ladislas  of  Naples.  Ladislas  in  league  with  Gregory. 
League  of  Florence  with  Baldassare  Cossa.  Negotiations 
with  Ladislas.  Cossa  and  Filargi  at  Florence.  Gregory 
excommunicates  Cossa.  Provincial  Council  at  Florence. 
Ladislas  prepares  to  invade  Tuscany.  His  banner.  '  King 
Waste-crop'  in  Tuscany.  Exertions  of  Sigismund  on  be- 
half of  Gregory.     The  right  of  convocation.      Sigismund's 


xxii     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

PAQE 

negotiations.  Carlo  Malatesta,  Sigismund,  and  the  Venetian 
Republic.  Desertion  of  Pope  Gregory.  French  support  of 
the  Council  of  Pisa.  Benedict  declines  to  recognise  the 
Council  of  Pisa.  Opening  of  the  Council  of  Perpignan. 
Proceedings  of  the  Council.  Proceedings  of  the  Council 
held  by  Gregory  at  Cividale.  Gregory  escapes  to  Ladislas. 
Adherents  of  the  rival  Popes.  Attitude  of  England.  France 
and  the  Council,  ......       289 

CHAPTER    IX 

PISA 

Pisa.  Its  situation.  Transferred  to  Florence  by  Gabriel  Maria 
Visconti.  Revolt  of  the  Pisans.  Surrender  to  Florence. 
Occupied  by  Florentine  troops.  Importance  of  the  Council 
of  Pisa.  The  city  at  the  time  of  the  Council.  Assemblage 
of  representatives.  Ecclesiastics  at  the  Council.  '  iJe  an/eri- 
bilitate  Pupae  ab  Ecclesia.'     Opening  ceremony,  .  .       323 

CHAPTER   X 

THE    WAY    OF    A    COUNCIL 

First  general  Session.  Second  and  Third  Sessions.  Easter.  King 
Rupert's  embassy.  Fourth  Session  :  '  Pax  Vobis. '  Commis- 
sion to  consider  the  German  objections.  Flight  of  the 
German  embassy.  Carlo  Malatesta  at  Pisa.  His  unsuccess- 
ful negotiation  with  the  Council.  Fifth  general  Session  : 
Commission  appointed  to  investigate  the  charges  against  the 
Popes.  Arrival  of  French  and  English  ecclesiastics.  Sixth 
Session  :  Bishop  Hallam's  sermon.  Seventh  Session  :  answer 
to  the  German  objections.  Recognition  of  Wenzel  as  King 
of  the  Romans.  Approaching  arrival  of  Benedict's  ambassa- 
dors announced.  Eighth  Session  :  Announcement  of  the 
oecumenical  character  of  the  Council.  Ninth  Session  :  with- 
drawal of  obedience;  the  importunate  Englishman.  Tenth, 
Eleventh,  and  Twelfth  Sessions  :  evidence  read  ;  further  evi- 
dence to  be  taken.  Bulls  from  Pope  Benedict.  Evidence 
as  to  heresy.  Bishop  of  Novai-a's  assembly  and  the  Thir- 
teenth Session.  Fourteenth  Session  :  further  evidence  read. 
Fifteenth  Session  :  Deposition  of  the  rival  Popes.  Spread  of 
the  news.  Preparations  for  the  election  of  a  new  Pope.  Arrival 
of  Cardinal  de  Chalant.  Sixteenth  and  Seventeenth  Sessions  : 
arrival  of  Cardinal  Baldassare  Cossa.  Eighteenth  Session  : 
arrival  of  Benedict's  ambassadors.  Commission  at  Saint 
Martin's  to  hear  the  embassy.  Last  Session  of  the  Popeless 
Council.     The  election  of  the  new  Pope,         .  .  .       342 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS  xxiii 

CHAPTER   XI 

POPE    ALEXANDER    THE    FIFTH 

PAQE 

News  of  his  election.  EflFect  of  the  election  on  the  Council. 
'  C71U7U  ox'ile  et  ujm.\'  Pastor.'  The  coronation.  Reckless 
liberality  of  the  new  Pope.  Twenty-first  Session.  Twenty- 
second  Session.  The  last  Session.  General  results  of  the 
Council  of  Pisa.  Burguudiaus  and  Armagnacs.  Germany 
and  the  Council.  King  Rupert  after  the  Council.  Venice 
recognises  Pope  Alexander.  Sigismund  recognises  Alex- 
ander. Louis,  the  second  Duke  of  Anjou.  The  League 
against  King  Ladislas.  The  revolt  of  Genoa.  The  march  of 
the  Allies.  Capture  of  the  Leonine  City.  The  allies  besiege 
Rome.  Pope  Alexander  goes  to  Prato.  His  Bull  Reynans 
in  Excelsif.  The  capture  of  Rome.  Bull  against  King 
Ladislas.  The  Pope  moves  from  Pistoja  to  Bologna.  The 
Pope  at  Bologna.  The  Golden  Rose  presented  to  the 
Marquess  of  Este.  The  revolt  of  Forlimpopolo.  Death  of 
Alexander  the  Fifth.  The  election  of  a  new  Pope.  The 
Conclave.  Baldassare  Cossa's  demerits  and  qualifications. 
His  three  great  enemies.     Death  of  King  Rupert,      .  .       375 

Index,  ........       411 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

'THE  SINFUL  CITY  OF  AVENON,'  ....     Frontispiece 

AT  FAGE 

PIERRE  D'AILLY, 136 

POPE  BENEDICT  THE  THIRTEENTH, 172 

CHATEAU  RENARD, 206 

JOHN,  DUKE  OF  BURGUNDY, 228 

POPE  GREGORY  THE  TWELFTH, 250 

LOUIS,  DUKE  OF  ORLEANS, 268 

PORTO  VENERE,        ........  272 

POPE  ALEXANDER  THE  FIFTH, 374 


xxiv 


IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 
CHAPTEK    I 

THE    HOLY    ROMAN    EMPIRE 

By  our  forefathers  the  whole  world  was  divided  into 
Christendom  and  Heathenesse,  and  when  Christianity  be- 
came the  state  religion  of  the  Roman  Empire,  Christendom 
practically  meant  the  whole  of  that  Empire  as  distinct  from 
the  rest  of  the  world.  The  Holy  Roman  Church  and  the 
Holy  Roman  Empire  were  thus  two  different  phrases, 
signifying  the  same  body  of  people,  viewed  from  their 
spiritual  or  their  temporal  side.  In  327  Constantine  the 
Great  moved  the  seat  of  Empire  to  Byzantium,  which  we 
call  Constantinople,  but  which  was  then  called  Rome,  which 
is  still  called  Rome  to  this  day  by  Musalmans  all  the  world 
over.  The  Rome  on  the  Bosporus  instead  of  the  Rome  on 
the  Tiber,  the  eastern  Rome  instead  of  the  western  Rome, 
became  the  seat  of  Empire,  and  it  remained  the  sole  seat 
until  the  death  of  Theodosius.  Then  the  Empire  was 
divided  ;  Arcadius  received  the  Eastern  and  Honorius  the 
Western  provinces.  In  476  the  last  Emperor  of  the 
Western  provinces,  Romulus  Augustulus,  was  deposed  ;  the 
Senate  sent  the  regalia  to  the  Emperor  Zeno  at  Rome  on  the 
Bosporus,  and  informed  him  that  they  no  longer  required  a 
separate  royalty,  that  Zeno  himself  would  suffice  as  sole 
Emperor  for  both  ends  of  the  earth.  Thus  the  Western 
provinces  were  reunited  with  the  Eastern,  and  there  was 
again  a  single  undivided  Roman  Empire.  This  continued 
until  the  end  of  the  eighth  century,  when  a  wonderful  change 
occurred.  The  Emperor  Constantine  the  Sixth  was  in  797 
blinded  and  deposed  by  his  mother  Irene,  who  aspired  to  seat 
herself  on  the  imperial   throne.      There  had   before  this  been 

A 


2       IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

female  resents  who  had  ruled  while  their  sons  or  wards  were 
minors,  and  even  after  :  Theodora  had  been  crowned  Empress 
when  her  husband,  Justinian,  was  crowned  Emperor  ;   but  no 
woman    had  ever  reigned  alone,  and  in    her  own   right,  as 
Emperor  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire.^      In  799  Charles  the 
Great,-  Charlemagne,  the  Teuton  King  of  the  Franks,  was 
called   upon    to   aid   Pope   Leo    the   Third,  who    had    been 
brutally  assaulted  in  a  procession,  and  had  been  left  for  dead 
after  his  enemies  had,  as  they  thought,  deprived  him  of  sight 
and  speech.      Charles  had  already  delivered  Italy  from  the 
Lombards ;  he  now  came  to  Rome  for  the  fourth  time,  the 
charges   against   the    Pope    were    heard    and    his    innocence 
pronounced  in   full    synod,  and  on  Christmas  Day  Charles, 
robed  in  the  chlamys  and  sandals  of  a  Roman  patrician,  heard 
Mass  in  the  Church  of  Saint  Peter.      '  After  the  celebration 
of  the  holy  mysteries,  Leo  suddenly  placed  a  precious  crown 
on  his  head,  and  the  dome  resounded  with  the  acclamations 
of  the  people,  "  Long  life  and  victory  to  Charles,  the  most 
pious    Augustus,    crowned    by    God    the    great    and    pacific 
Emperor   of   the   Romans."'^       'In    that   shout,'   says   Mr. 
Bryce,  '  echoed  by  the  Franks  without,  was  pronounced  the 
union,  so  long  in  preparation,  so  mighty  in  its  consequences, 
of  the  Roman  and  the  Teuton,  of   the  memories  and  the 
civilisation  of  the  South  with  the  fresh  energy  of  the  North, 
and  from  that  moment  modern  history  begins.'* 

The  throne  at  Constantinople  was  vacant  through  the 
death  of  the  Emperor  without  male  successor ;  Charles  was 
therefore  regarded  as  sole  Emperor  of  the  Holy  Roman 
Empire.  His  dominion  was  so  wide,  his  conquests  so 
extensive,  that  in  his  day  it  was  almost  as  it  had  been  in  the 
earlier  days  of  the  Empire — to  be  a  Roman  was  to  be  a 
Christian,  and  to  be  a  Christian  was  to  be  a  Roman.  The 
successors  of  Constantine  at  the  Rome  on  the  Bosporus  were 
looked  upon  as  nothing  more  than   mere  kings  of  Greece ; 

*  •  Irene  was  the  second  Athenian  lady  who  married  a  Roman  Emperor  and 
became  an  Augusta ;  the  first  was  the  famous  Athenais  (Eudocia).'— Bury, 
History  of  the  Later  Roman  Empire,  ii.  480. 

"  Charles  had  at  one  time  thought  of  himself  marrying  Irene,  and  at  another 
he  had  betrothed  his  daughter  to  her  son.     Ibid.  ii.  483,  490. 

3  Gibbon,  vi.  169.  *  Bryce,  49, 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  EMPIRE  3 

and  if  the  continued  existence  of  the  Eastern  Empire  be 
granted,  it  virtually  came  to  an  end  with  the  Fourth 
Crusade,  for  the  Palaeologi  were  feeble  representatives  even 
of  the  Conmeni,  and  their  Byzantine  Empire  was  a  mere 
shadow  of  the  old  Empire  of  the  East.  The  Holy  Roman 
Empire,  as  a  mighty  all-embracing  monarchy  in  which  the 
rule  of  one  man  was  felt  and  acknowledged  to  the  ends  of 
the  civilised  world,  was  the  Empire  of  Charles  and  his 
successors  who  were  crowned  at  Rome.  The  terms  of  the 
union  between  Pope  Leo  and  the  Emperor  Charles  were  not 
set  forth  in  words,  but  they  were  well  known  ;  they  were 
that  the  Pope  should  rule  the  souls,  and  the  Emperor  the 
bodies,  of  their  common  subjects  in  righteousness,  the  rulers 
acting  together  in  harmony,  to  the  end  that  all  men  might 
inherit  eternal  life.  It  was  a  noble  theory,  but  impossible  of 
realisation  in  practice.  It  required  a  complete  accord  of  the 
papal  and  imperial  powers  ;  and  this  accord  was  attained  under 
Charles  and  Pope  Leo  the  Third,  under  Otto  the  Third 
and  Popes  Gregory  the  Fifth  and  Sylvester  the  Second,  under 
Henry  the  Third,  but  certainly  never  thenceforth.^ 

The  Emperors  came  to  Rome  merely  to  be  crowned  with 
the  golden  crown  ;  the  Popes  resided  in  Rome ;  theirs  was 
the  enduring  power  in  Italy.  At  first  simply  the  Bishop  of 
Rome,  then  the  sole  Patriarch  of  the  West,  the  Pope  had 
gradually  attained  to  be  acknowledged  as  the  spiritual  head 
of  Christendom.  The  Emperor  being  the  temporal  head,  it 
was  natural  that  the  relation  of  the  two  powers  should  come 
to  be  defined.  About  the  middle  of  the  eighth  century  " 
there  appeared  the  document  known  as  the  Donation  of 
Constantine,  which  was  probably  composed  by  one  of  the 
priests  attached  to  the  Church  of  the  Lateran.  This  set 
forth  that  Constantine,  on  being  baptized  by  Pope  Sylvester, 
had  in  his  gratitude  conferred  on  the  Pope  and  his  successors 
Rome,  Italy,  and  the  Western  provinces — that  is  Lombardy, 
Venice,  and  Istria  — '  in  order  that  the  lamps  of  the  Roman 
churches  might  be  supplied  with  oil."'  After  the  death  of 
Charles  the  Great  his  dominions  were  divided  among  his 
heirs,  and  their  discord  and  wars  speedily  enfeebled  tlie 
»  Bryce,  107,  '  Janus,  148. 


4      IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

might  of  the   Empire.       The  strength   of  the  Church  was 
meantime  growing  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  bishops  had 
hitherto    been     the     main    supports    of     civil    and    orderly 
government.       A    clerical    tribunal,    '  an    irregular     conven- 
tion   of   certain    Bishops    of  the    Gauls,    assembled    without 
proper  sanction,'^  deposed  Louis  the  Pious  in   833  ;  bishops 
and    clergy,    convened    in   Council    at    Aix-la-Chapelle,    pro- 
nounced  that   the   throne   of   Lothair  was   vacant  in   842.'^ 
From  858  to  867  there  reigned  at  Rome  Pope  Nicholas  the 
First,  the   greatest  of   the  Popes   since  Gregory    the  Great. 
He  took  up  the   work,  afterwards  consummated    by   Hilde- 
brand,  of  welding  the  Church  into  one  vast  monarchy  subject 
to    the    Pope    and    independent    of   the    civil    powers.       He 
insisted  on  the  right  of  appeal  to  Rome  against  the  decrees 
of  metropolitans  ;  he  put  forward  this  claim,  not  only  in  the 
interest   of   the   clergy,  but   in   order   that   those    of   every 
condition  might  have  recourse  to  the  Roman  Church  as  to 
their  universal  Mother,  seeking  from  her  the  safety  of  their 
bodies   and   their   souls.^       He   upheld    the    primacy  of  the 
Papacy  against  the  Emperor  and  the  Patriarch  at   Constan- 
tinople.      He  interfered  on  the   ground  of  morality  in  the 
divorce  of  Lothair.      He  insisted,  in  the  matter  of  the  Bishop 
Rothade,    that    the    rights    of    the    Church    could    not     be 
invalidated  by   the  decrees  of  Emperors.      He  corresponded 
with  the   three   sons    of  Louis    the  Pious   in    their  separate 
kingdoms,  with   Salomon  of  Brittany,  with  the  King  of  the 
Bulgarians,  with  the  King  of  Denmark,  with  the  Emperor  at 
Constantinople.      He    led    the    way    to    Pope    Gregory    the 
Seventh.      Shortly  before  his  pontificate  there   burst  forth  on 
Christendom  that  wonderful  forgery  known  as  the  Decretals 
of  Isidore.     It  was  an  age  of  forgery,*  but  Nicholas  himself 
made  no  use  of  the  false  Decretals  ;  they  were  introduced  at 
Rome  in  the  pontificate  of  John  the  Eighth  (872-882),^  and 
thenceforward  they  formed  the  armoury  from  which  the  Popes 
drew     their    arms    to     enforce     the    theory    of    the    papal 
sovereignty.      This  knavery,  says  Dollinger,*^  brought    about 

1  Palgrave,  History  of  Normandy  and  England,  i.  295. 

2  Ibid.  i.  336.  ^  Rocquain,  70.  *  Ibid.  17  et  seq. 
6  Ibid.  6,i.                              ^  Janus,  107. 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  EMPIRE  5 

slowly    and    gradually    the    complete    transformation    of   the 
constitution  and  government  of  the  Church. 

The  Carolingian  line  of  Emperors  ended  with  Charles  the 
Fat,  who  died  in  888.  Then  followed  certain  phantom 
Emperors  in  Italy,  the  last  of  whom  was  Berengar,  who  died 
in  924.  Meantime  war  and  confusion  reigned  everywhere. 
The  Papacy  was  disgraced  by  the  Reign  of  the  Harlots  ;  it 
had  lost  all  authority  within  Italy;  it  had  lost  all  respect 
without ;  it  looked  as  if  the  Church  Universal  were  about  to 
split  up  into  a  number  of  merely  national  churches.  The 
Empire  was  in  suspense;  everything  demanded  its  revival. 
'  In  a  time  of  disintegration,  confusion,  strife,  all  the  longings 
of  every  wiser  and  better  soul  for  unity,  for  peace  and  law, 
for  some  bond  to  bring  Christian  men  and  Christian  states 
together  against  the  common  enemy  of  the  faith,  were  but  so 
many  cries  for  the  restoration  of  the  Roman  Empire.''^  In 
Germany,  Henry  the  Fowler  had  been  succeeded  by  his  son 
Otto  the  Great ;  and  the  golden  crown  was  now  offered  by 
the  Pope  to  Otto  if  he  would  revisit  and  pacify  Italy.  He 
descended  from  the  Alps  with  an  immense  army,  marched  to 
Pavia,  Avhere  he  was  acknowledged  King  of  Italy,  and  on  the 
2nd  February  962  Avas  crowned  Emperor  in  the  Church  of 
Saint  John  Lateran  by  Pope  John  the  Twelfth.  His  Empire 
was  not  so  vast  as  that  of  Charles  the  Great ;  it  included 
Germany  and  two- thirds  of  Italy,  Lorraine  and  Burgundy, 
Bohemia  and  Moravia,  Poland  and  Denmark,  perhaps  Hungary: 
there  were  important  differences  in  its  inner  structure  and 
character ;  that  kingdom  of  France,  which  had  its  centre  at 
Paris,  no  longer  acknowledged  its  sway,  nor  did  England. 
Otto  must  therefore  be  considered,  not  as  the  successor  of 
Charlemagne,  but  as  the  second  founder  of  the  Empire, 
of  that  Empire  which  denotes  the  sovereignty  of  Germany 
and  Italy  vested  in  a  Germanic  prince.  During  the  century 
which  succeeded  the  coronation  of  Otto  the  Great  the  Empire 
attained  the  zenith  of  its  power,  and  held  itself  highest  with 
regard  to  Rome. 

It  was  the  Age  of  Feudalism.      Before  the  second  half  of 
the  thirteenth  century  there  was   no  political   thought ;   but 
1  Hist.  Gen.  i.  538 ;  Bryce,  84. 


6     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

Rome  had  taught  men  to  believe  in  a  World-Empire,  and 
Christianity  had  taught  men  to  believe  in  a  World-Religion ; 
and  these  two  being  allied  and  conterminous,  their  alliance 
and  interdependence  was  assumed  to  be  necessary  and  eternal. 
The  clergy  and  the  realist  philosophers  alike  believed  in  o)ie 
universal  temporal  State  and  one  visible  catholic  Church. 
The  underlying  notion  of  that  '  portentous  fabrication,''  the 
Donation  of  Constantine,  is  that  the  Pope  must  in  every 
point  represent  his  prototype  the  Emperor ;  the  spiritual 
power  was  to  imitate  and  rival  the  temporal,  which  was  its 
necessary  complement ;  *  hence  the  part  which  the  Holy  See 
played  in  transferring  the  crown  to  Charles,  the  first  sovereign 
of  the  West  capable  of  fulfilling  its  duties  ;  hence  the  grief 
with  which  its  weakness  under  his  successors  was  seen,  the 
gladness  when  it  descended  to  Otto  as  representative  of  the 
Prankish  kingdom.''  ^ 

The  relation  of  the  papal  and  the  imperial  powers  is 
represented  at  this  time  under  the  emblem  of  the  soul  and 
the  body.  Just  as  God  ruled  over  blessed  spirits,  so  did  the 
Pope  rule  over  the  souls  of  men  ;  just  as  God  was  Lord  of 
Earth  as  well  as  of  Heaven,  so  was  he  represented  in  temporal 
matters  by  the  Emperor;  'fe  Pape  et  VEmpereur,  les  deux 
moities  de  Dicu.''  It  was  this  belief  in  the  necessary  existence 
of  a  conterminous  world-empire  and  world-religion  which  made 
the  earlier  crusades  so  popular  and  universal ;  it  was  its  decad- 
ence which  rendered  the  later  crusades  so  petty  and  abortive.'^ 

When  Otto  the  Great  was  crowned  he  promised  to  protect 
the  Church  against  all  her  enemies,  and  the  Pope  and  the 
people  of  Rome  in  their  turn  took  an  oath  of  allegiance  to 
him  and  covenanted  not  to  elect  any  future  pontiff  without 
his  sanction.  The  Saxon  and  Franconian  Emperors  thence- 
forward either  nominated  the  Popes  or  approved  their  elec- 
tion ;  they  exercised  the  right  of  deposition  and  of  trial  of 
the  Head  of  the  Church.  They  did  more  ;  they  set  to  work 
to  cleanse  the  Augean  stable  :  Pope  John  the  Twelfth,  '  the 
apostate,'  was  deposed ;  Pope  Benedict  the  Ninth,  who  led  a 
life  foul,  shameful,  and  execrable,  was  degraded ;  German 
Popes  were  appointed.  The  Papacy  was  reformed.  But  the 
^  Bryce,  loi.  ^  Biehier,  VEglise  et  f  Orient  au  Moyen  Age,  212,  8. 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  EMPIRE  7 

reformed  Papacy  proved  mightier  than  the  Empire  ;  a  change 
in  their  relative  positions  ensued.  If  the  might  of  the  Empire 
was  at  its  zenith  during  the  reigns  of  the  Saxon  and  Franco- 
nian  Emperors,  the  moral  glory  and  influence  of  the  Papacy 
were  at  their  height  during  the  reigns  of  the  greatest  and 
grandest,  the  most  high-minded  and  politic  Popes,  from 
the  days  of  Hildebrand  to  the  pontificate  of  Innocent  the 
Third. 

Hildebrand  himself  has  been  well  described  as  the  man  in 
whom  were  summed  up  all  the  grandeur  and  audacity  of  the 
Papacy.     From  his  early  days  he  was  imbued  with  the  notion 
that  on  the  Pope,  as  the  successor  of  Saint  Peter  and  the  re- 
presentative  of  the  Deity  in  this  world,  was  conferred  the 
mission  of  directing  humanity  ;  Christ  had  commanded  Peter 
to  feed  His  sheep,  and  Gregory  took  the  command  to  himself. 
The    clergy   were    sunk    in    moral    degradation ;    they    were 
stained    with   simony  and  concubinage ;    the    Church  was  in 
the   hands   of   the  German   Emperors.      Gregory's  life-work 
was  to  elevate  the  clergy,  to  make  them  fit  to  be  the  guides 
and  rulers  of  mankind,  and  to  free  the  Church  entirely  from 
lay  control.     The  task  was  so  great  that  for  long  he  shrank 
from    undertaking    it    himself.       He    had    left    Rome    with 
Gregory  the  Sixth  in  1047,  he  returned  two  years  later  with 
Leo  the  Ninth ;  from  the  pontificate  of  Victor  the  Second 
(1054-1057)  onwards,  his  was  the  ruling  spirit  at  Rome. 
It  was  he  who  recommended  Victor  to  the  Emperor ;  Victor's 
successor,  Stephen  the  Tenth,  was  elected  at  Rome  without 
the  participation  of  Germany.      When   Stephen  died,   Hilde- 
brand assembled  the  cardinals  and  the  principal  Romans  and 
elected  Nicholas  the  Second  ;  the  election  was  notified  to  the 
Empress,  but  one  of  the  first  acts  of  the  new  pontificate  was 
the  Bull  which  provided  that  in  future  the  Pope  should  be 
elected  by  the  College  of  Cardinals — a  deadly  blow   to   the 
influence  of  the  Emperors.      The  next  Pope,  Alexander  the 
Second,  was  elected  without  any  reference  to  Germany.     The 
Emperors  henceforth  lost   all   authority  in  the    election   of 
Popes.      All  this  time  Hildebrand  had  stood  in  the   back- 
ground ;    he   was    the    man    behind  the    papal   throne  :    his 
influence  was  universally  acknowledged.     When  Alexander  was 


8      IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

Pope,  Peter  Damiani  indited  to  Hildebrand  the  well-known 
couplet — 

'  Papam  rite  colo,  sed  te  prostratus  adoro  ; 
Tu  facis  hunc  Dominum,  te  facit  ipse  Deum.' 

On  the  death  of  Alexander,  Hildebrand  in  his  own  despite 
was  raised  to  the  chair  of  Saint  Peter ;  two  days  later  he  was 
prostrate  with  trouble  and  anguish  at  his  elevation. 

Pope  Gregory  the  Seventh  lost  no  time  in  rising  to  the 
height  of  his  great  mission.  Filled  with  a  fiery  zeal,  he 
waged  unceasingly  a  holy  war  for  papal  supremacy.  He 
aimed  to  subdue  the  civil  world  to  the  clergy,  the  clergy  to 
the  Papacy,  to  transform  the  whole  of  Europe  into  one  vast 
theocracy.  The  bishops  were  to  be  his  faithful  henchmen  ; 
he  would  have  no  bishop  whom  he  did  not  know  and  trust ; 
he  did  not  abrogate  the  old  custom  that  a  bishop  should  be 
chosen  from  the  diocese  by  the  clergy  and  people,  but  where  a 
fitting  man  could  not  be  so  found,  he  was  ready  to  recommend 
an  outsider.  Almost  his  first  public  act,  in  a  synod  at  Rome, 
was  a  declaration  of  war  against  simony  and  the  marriage  of 
the  clergy.  In  some  countries,  certainly  in  England,  in 
Germany,  and  in  Italy,  the  majority  of  the  clergy  were  then 
married,  and  the  clergy  were  as  a  consequence  fast  degen- 
erating into  a  closed  caste.  It  was  a  choice  of  evils  :  on  the 
one  side  was  the  temptation  to  illicit  connections  ;  on  the 
other,  the  hereditary  succession  and  the  degeneracy  of  the 
order.^  Gregory's  action  stirred  up  strife  in  the  Church  and 
widespread  discontent ;  but  he  was  firm  ;  he  stood  on  the 
old  ways,  the  weight  of  authority  was  on  his  side.  Not  that 
this  would  have  mattered,  when  once  he  was  satisfied  as  to 
his  own  righteousness ;  if  he  unto  himself  was  true,  he 
was  ready  to  use  forged  decretal  or  papal  letter  to  explain 
and  impress  his  meaning  on  others.  He  was  persuaded 
that  the  power  of  the  Pope  was  ordained  of  God,  that  the 
civil  powers  took  their  origin  from  evil ;  that  it  was  his 
mission,  therefore,  to  see  that  the  kings  of  the  earth  ruled  in 
righteousness.  He  sent  his  legates  into  every  country  of 
Europe ;  he  exacted  passive  obedience  from  them  toward 
^  Milman,  iv.  i8. 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  EMPIRE  9 

himself,  passive  obedience  from  the  clergy  toward  them. 
Before  he  had  been  two  years  Pope  he  excommunicated 
Italian  dukes,  he  sent  an  embassy  demanding  unquestioning 
obedience  from  the  Emperor  in  Germany,  he  threatened  to 
excommunicate  the  King  of  France.^  His  quarrel  with 
Henry  the  Fourth  led  that  monarch  to  the  Humiliation  of 
Canossa  (1077);  it  brought  about  the  long,  weary  strife  of 
the  Investitures.  At  the  synod  of  Rome,  held  in  Lent  1075, 
the  Pope  abrogated  the  right  of  the  investiture  of  bishops 
and  abbots  by  the  temporal  sovereign  ;  their  endowments 
were  to  be  withdrawn  from  the  nation  to  the  Church  ;  the 
Pope  was  to  become  liege  lord  of  one  half  the  world."  The 
dispute  was  not  settled  until  long  after  Pope  Gregory  had 
closed  his  weary  eyes,  an  exile  from  Rome  at  Salerno  ;  he  had 
fought  valiantly  for  the  Church,  but  was  not  conscious  of 
victory.  '  I  have  loved  justice  and  hated  iniquity,  and  there- 
fore I  die  in  exile,'  were  the  last  words  of  Hildebrand. 

Nevertheless  the  Empire  had  been  abased,  the  Papacy  had 
been  exalted  ;  for  three  days  in  the  snow  had  the  supreme 
Lord  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire  awaited  the  beck  of  the 
carpenter's  son.  Literary  proofs  to  support  the  Pope's  pre- 
tensions were  now  forthcoming ;  not  merely  the  False  De- 
cretals, but  the  Dictatus  Papae,  the  works  of  Anselm  of 
Lucca  and  of  Cardinal  Dieudonne,  the  Liber  ad  Amkum 
of  Bonizo,^  followed  later  by  the  Polycarpus  of  Gregory  of 
Pavia,  all  upheld  the  doctrine  of  papal  supremacy.  The 
Donation  of  Constantine  had  been  supplemented  by  the  Dona- 
tion of  Charlemagne.  All  these  falsifications  were  sub- 
sequently (1142)  adopted  by  Gratian  and  were  embodied  in 
his  Decretum,  or  more  accurately  the  Concordmitia  discordan- 
tium  Canomtm,  which  'swept  all  its  predecessors  out  of  the 
field  and  soon  won  something  of  the  authority  that  belonged 
to  a  definite  codification  of  previous  ecclesiastical  jurispru- 
dence.' The  Pope's  claim  to  the  supreme  power  over  king 
or  emperor,  power  even  to  depose  him  if  circumstances  re- 
quired, could  not,  however,  have  been  set  forth  in  more 
uncompromising  terms  than  were  used  by  Gregory  himself 
to  Bishop  Hermann  of  Metz.  But  Pope  Gregory  the  Seventh, 
1  Rocquain,  125.  -  Milman,  iv.  58.  ^  Janus,  llSei  se</. 


DIVERSITY 


10     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

being  a  politic  statesman,  was  careful  how  he  practised  what 
he  preached.  The  strife  as  to  investitures  continued  after 
both  he  and  Henry  were  dead.  The  Emperor  died  excom- 
municated, and  his  successor  proposed  (1111)  to  resign  the 
right  of  investiture,  provided  the  bishops  and  abbots  resigned 
their  temporalities.  The  Pope,  Paschal  the  Second,  con- 
sented, but  the  prelates  themselves  would  by  no  means  agree 
to  such  a  course.  Rome  was  besieged,  the  Pope  yielded  the 
right  of  investiture,  but  the  Lateran  Council  went  back  on  his 
concession,  and  the  Council  of  Vienne  excommunicated  the 
Emperor.  Finally  the  dispute  was  settled  in  1122  by  the 
Concordat  of  Worms  :  bishops  and  abbots  were  to  be  elected 
freely  in  the  presence  of  the  Emperor  or  his  commissioners  ; 
the  right  of  investiture  by  the  ring  and  pastoral  staff  was  to 
be  performed  by  the  Pope,  but  they  were  to  receive  their 
temporalities  from  the  Emperor  by  the  touch  of  the  sceptre. 
They  were  to  obey  the  Pope  in  matters  spiritual,  and  they 
were  faithfully  to  discharge  to  the  Emperor  all  duties  incident 
to  their  principalities.  The  Pope  had  been  constrained  to 
abandon  his  contention  '  to  make  the  Church  absolutely  in- 
dependent both  as  to  election  and  as  to  the  possession  of  vast 
feudal  rights  without  the  obligations  of  feudal  obedience  to 
the  Empire.''  ^ 

In  the  second  half  of  the  twelfth  century,  with  the  advent 
of  the  Hohenstaufen  Emperors,  the  strife  between  the  Empire 
and  the  Papacy  entered  on  a  new  phase.  Frederic  Barbarossa 
was  to  the  Empire  what  Hildebrand  and  Innocent  were  to 
the  popedom.  He  was  assured  that  his  temporal  superiority 
obtained  over  all  other  powers,  even  over  that  of  the  Pope. 
'  His  power  was  of  God  alone ;  to  assert  that  it  is  bestowed 
by  the  successor  of  Saint  Peter  was  a  lie,  and  directly  con- 
trary to  the  doctrine  of  Saint  Peter.'-  To  him,  as  Freeman 
says,^  '  the  rights  of  the  Roman  Empire  were  a  sacred  cause, 
in  whose  behalf  he  was  ready  to  spend  and  be  spent.'  For 
thirty  years  out  of  the  thirty-eight  of  his  reign  he  was  fight- 
ing to  maintain  his  rights  as  King  of  Italy  against  the 
municipalities  of  Lombardy,  which  were  fast  growing  into 
sovereign  commonwealths.  He  was  defeated  at  the  battle 
1  Milman,  iv.  294.  "^  Ibid.  iv.  409.  ^  Freeman,  i.  278. 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  EMPIRE         11 

of  Legano  (1176);  he  was  obliged  to  make  the  peace  of 
Constance  (1183),  whereby,  although  the  supremacy  of  the 
Empire  was  nominally  saved,  still  the  Lombard  republics 
practically  became  self-governing  city-states.  In  1159  two 
Popes  had  been  elected,  and  the  Emperor  convened  a  council 
at  Pavia  to  decide  between  rival  claims  ;  but  Alexander  the 
Third  declined  to  acknowledge  the  authority.  '  No  one,'  said 
he,  '  has  the  right  to  judge  me,  since  I  am  the  supreme  judge 
of  all  the  world.'  Thus  began  the  warfare  between  the 
Hohenstaufen  and  the  Papacy  which,  one  way  and  another, 
lasted  for  more  than  a  century. 

Frederic  Barbarossa  made  his  peace  with  the  Pope  at  Venice 
just  one  hundred  years  after  the  Humiliation  of  Canossa  ;  he 
took  the  lead   in   the  Third  Crusade,  and  was  drowned  in  a 
little  river  in  Cilicia.      He  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Henry 
the  Sixth,  whose  overlordship  Richard  of  the  Eion  Heart  was 
constrained  to  acknowledge  as  he  lay  a  prisoner  in  the  Castle 
of  Trifels.       After    his   death    the  majority  of  the    electors 
chose  his  brother,  Philip  of  Swabia,  but  the  minority  chose 
Otto    of   Brunswick  (1197).      The  next  year  was  marked   by 
the  advent  to  the  papal  throne  of  that  Pope  whose  pontificate 
marks  the  culminating  point  of  theocratic  power,^      Innocent 
the  Third,  elected   when  he  was  thirty-eight  years   of  age, 
reigned  for  eighteen  years  :  a  consummate  lawyer,  both  in  the 
civil  and  the  canon  law  ;  well  read,  and  possessing  an  excellent 
memory  ;  prudent  and  methodical,  persevering  and  laborious, 
he  brought  the  Papacy  to  the  apogee  of  absolute  power.      He 
expected  that  the  disputed  election  would  be  referred  to  him 
for   his    decision :    it   was    not   referred.     Innocent  therefore 
determined    to    interfere,   and    he    pronounced    for    Otto    of 
Brunswick,  but  it  was  not  until  the  dastardly  assassination  of 
Philip  of  Swabia  in  1208  that  the  Pope's  nominee  obtained 
the  throne,  and   then  he  soon  quarrelled  with  the  Pope.      In 
1212  Innocent  accepted  Frederic,  the  grandson  of  Barbarossa, 
as  Emperor  ;   two  years  later  Otto  was  defeated  at  the  battle 
of  Bouvines,  and   Frederic  was  thenceforth  undisputed  King 
of  the  Romans.     The  Pope  had  triumphed  for  the  moment. 
But  the    turning-point   had    been    reached.      The    King   of 

'  Rocquain,  1 39. 


12     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

France  drew  a  sharp  line  of  distinction  between  matters 
spiritual  and  matters  temporal.  In  his  relations  to  his 
vassals,  in  his  relations  to  other  kings,  he  would  admit  no 
superiority  in  the  Holy  See.  The  crusaders  in  the  Fourth 
Crusade  were  equally  deaf  to  the  instructions  of  the  Pope ; 
they  turned  their  arms  against  a  Christian  city ;  they  be- 
sieged Constantinople  itself  for  the  benefit  of  the  Venetians. 
The  Pope  tried  to  start  another  crusade,  but  he  preached  to 
deaf  ears.  His  letters  are  measured  and  circumspect,  never 
imperious.  '  Innocent  III.  Im-merne  semhlc  MsUer  quand  il 
parlc  du  droit  du  Saint-Siege  sur  les  royaumes  et  represente 
cehd-ci  ^'comme  la  source  de  la  puissance''''  (plenitndo  potestatisY^ 

In  spite,  however,  of  this  divergence  in  political  ideas, 
in  spite  of  the  divergence  in  religious  ideas  which  he  tried 
to  combat  in  his  crusade  against  the  Albigenses,  Innocent 
pushed  the  doctrine  of  papal  supremacy  to  its  height. 
The  old  symbol  of  the  soul  and  the  body,  to  exemplify 
the  relationship  of  the  spiritual  and  temporal  powers, 
was  replaced  by  that  of  the  sun  and  the  moon  ;  the  Pope 
was  the  greater  orb,  the  Emperor  was  the  less.  Their 
authority  was  exemplified  by  a  reference  to  the  two  swords. 
When  the  Son  of  God  came  down  on  earth  to  save  sinful 
man  and  to  establish  His  own  rule  over  the  kingdoms  of  the 
world.  He  entered,  as  the  time  for  redemption  drew  nigh,  the 
garden  which  is  beyond  the  brook  Kedron,  and  told  His 
disciples  that  he  among  them  who  had  not  a  sword  should 
sell  his  coat  and  buy  one ;  to  which  they  answered  that  they 
had  already  two  swords.  And  the  Lord  answered  that  the 
two  swords  were  enough.  These  two  swords  are  the  emblems 
of  spiritual  and  temporal  authority.  Both  alike  belong  to 
the  Pope  as  the  successor  of  Saint  Peter  :  he  wields  the  one 
sword  himself;  the  second  sword  is  wielded  by  the  temporal 
authorities  for  the  Church  and  under  the  direction  of  the  Pope. 

Under  Innocent  the  Third  also  the  famous  fiction  of  the 
Translation  of  the  Empire  was  put  into  authentic  form  by 
the  decree  Venerab'dem.  It  was  alleged  that  the  Empire 
of  Charles  the  Great  was  the  continuation  of  that  universal 
Empire  whose  seat  Constantine  had  established  at  Byzantium, 

^  Rocquain,  190. 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  EMPIRE  18 

which  had  become  vacant  by  the  succession  of  the  woman 
Irene,  which  had  reverted  therefore  to  its  rightful  seat,  its 
title  devolving  on  Charles.  The  Empire  had  been  trans- 
ferred from  the  Greeks  to  the  Franks  by  the  official  act  of 
Pope  Leo  the  Third,  so  that  the  event  of  the  year  800  was 
'  nothing  less  than  a  supreme  example  of  the  power  inherent  in 
the  successor  of  Saint  Peter  to  displace  and  create  Empires.'  ^ 
Frederic  the  Second,  the  most  wonderful  man  of  his  own 
or  perhaps  of  any  age,  '  Stupor  imindi  et  immutator  mirahilis^ 
as  Matthew  Paris  styled  him,  the  '  mightiest  and  most  dan- 
gerous adversary  that  the  Papacy  ever  had,'  as  he  is  described 
by  Freeman,^  was  when  eighteen  years  of  age  crowned  King 
of  the  Romans  in  1212,  and  had  taken  the  Cross;  on  the 
22nd  November  1220  he  was  crowned  Emperor  by  Pope 
Honorius  the  Third  at  Saint  Peter's,  and  again  received  the 
Cross  from  the  hands  of  Cardinal  Ugolino.  By  his  father's 
marriage  with  Constance  of  Sicily,  Frederic  was  King  of 
Lower  Italy  and  Sicily,  but  political  affairs  prevented  him 
from  fulfilling:  his  vow  before  the  death  of  Honorius  in 
122T.  Then  Cardinal  Ugolino,  eighty  years  of  age,  became 
Pope,  and  took  the  style  of  Gregory  the  Ninth.  The  Papacy 
was  then  at  the  height  of  its  power  ;  it  was,  in  the  words  of 
Hallam,  the  '  noonday  of  papal  dominion.'  The  Pope  was  backed 
by  the  league  of  Lombardy,  the  Templars  and  Hospitallers 
were  his  sworn  champions  in  the  battlefield,  the  Dominicans 
and  Franciscans  were  his  powerful  adherents  in  peace.  Gregory 
had  all  the  fire,  the  energy,  the  ambition  of  youth  ;  he  was 
a  skilled  canon  lawyer ;  he  knew  men  and  manners ;  his 
heart  was  set  on  recovering  Jerusalem  from  the  Musalman  ; 
he  would  abate  none  of  the  pretensions  of  Innocent  the 
Third.  The  Emperor  was  in  character,  in  aim,  in  object 
the  exact  opposite  of  his  grandfather.  Frederic  Barbarossa 
had  '  exhibited  the  ordinary  character  of  his  time  in  its  very 
noblest  shape  ;  but  it  was  still  only  the  ordinary  character 
of  the  time.'^  Frederic  the  Second  was  in  every  point 
extraordinary.  '  A  sensualist,  yet  also  a  warrior  and  a 
politician ;  a  profound  lawgiver  and  an  impassioned  poet ; 
in  his  youth  fired  bv  crusading  fervour,  in  later  life  perse- 
1  Poole,  251,  2.  ^  Freeman,  i.  295.  =*  Ibid,  i.  297. 


14     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

cuting    heretics    while    himself   accused    of    blasphemy    and 
unbelief;  of  winning  manners  and  ardently  beloved  by  his 
followers,  but  with  the  stain   of  more   than  one  cruel  deed 
upon    his  name,   he    was  the  marvel   of  his  own  generation, 
and   succeeding  ages  looked   back  with  awe,  not  unmingled 
with  pity,  upon  the  inscrutable  figure  of  the  last  Emperor 
who   had   braved    all  the  terrors  of    the    Church    and   died 
beneath    her    ban,  the    last    who    had  ruled   from   the  sands 
of  the  ocean  to  the  shores  of  the   Ionian  Sea.'^      Between 
such  an  Emperor  and  such  a  Pope  there  was  bound  to  be 
war  to   the   knife.       The  fight   was  for   supremacy.       Like 
Constantius,  the  son  of  Constantine  the  Great ;  like  Justinian, 
like  the  Emperors  of  the  East,  the  new  Emperor  would  have 
the  Church  obedient  to  the  Empire.       Frederic  was  deter- 
mined to  have  the  Pope  his  inferior ;  he  was  ready,  if  need 
were,  himself  to  ordain  a  much  better  rule  of  life  and  belief 
to   all  the   nations.      He  had    the  credit  for  being   a   free- 
thinker and  a  misbeliever  ;  his  jests  scandalised  the  world ;   he 
described  Moses,  Christ,  and  Muhammed  as  the  three  great 
impostors ;    he   said    that   if   God    had   seen   fertile,    smiling 
Sicily,  He  would  never  have  given  the  barren  land  of  Judaea 
to   His  chosen  people.      Pope    Gregory  excommunicated  the 
Emperor  for  not  going  on  crusade ;  he  excommunicated  him 
again  when  he  went,  he  excommunicated  him  again  when  he 
returned.      Frederic  went ;  he  won  Jerusalem  for  the  Chris- 
tians, he  was  obliged  himself  to  put  the  crown  on  his  own 
head  in  the  Holy  City,  for  no  priest  would  officiate.      His 
offence  was  that  he  had   won   by  diplomacy  what  others  had 
been  unable  to  win  by  arms ;  he  had   made  terms  with  the 
misbeliever,  and  was  suspected  of  being  a  misbeliever  him- 
self.     After  his  return  from  the   Holy  Land  he   managed   to 
make  terms  with  the  Pope ;  there  was  a  hollow  peace  between 
Gregory   and  Frederic  for  nine  years  (1230-1239).      Then 
war  broke  out  again  ;  the  Empire  and   the  Papacy  met  in 
implacable   strife  ;  the  Pope  excommunicated  the  Emperor ; 
the  Emperor  called  on  all  the  sovereigns  of  Christendom   to 
make  a  league  against  the  oppression  of  the  Pope  and  the 
hierarchy.      Pope  Gregory   the   Ninth   died    in    1241  ;    and 

>  Bryce,  204. 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  EMPIRE  15 

Frederic  addressed  a  circular  letter  to  the  sovereigns  of 
Europe,  informing  them  that  the  Pope  had  been  taken  away 
from  this  world,  and  had  so  escaped  the  vengeance  of  the 
Emperor,  of  whom  he  was  the  implacable  enemy. ^  Innocent 
the  Fourth  was  obliged  to  flee  to  France,  and  held  at  Lyons, 
1245,  the  Council  at  which  the  Emperor  was  declared  deposed  ; 
but  in  spite  of  all  attempts  to  raise  Germany  against  him, 
Frederic  reigned  on  undisturbed  until  his  death  in  1250. 

He  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Conrad  in  Germany,  by  his 
illegitimate  son    Manfred  in  Sicily.       Still   the  war  between 
the  Papacy  and    the    Hohenstaufen    continued.       At  length 
Pope   Urban    the   Fourth   conceived   the   idea   of   a    league 
between    the    Papacy,  France,    and    Naples :    he    offered    the 
kingdom  of  Naples  in  the  first  instance  to  Louis  the  Ninth ; 
it   was    accepted   by    the   King's    brother,  Charles  of  Anjou. 
The  triple  alliance  succeeded;   Charles  of  Anjou  came  and 
conquered ;    Conradin,    the   last    of    the    Hohenstaufen,    the 
grandson  of  the  Great  Emperor,  was  defeated  at  Tagliacozzo, 
and  was  executed  in  the  market-place  at  Naples.      Thus  fell 
the   Hohenstaufen    before  the  Popes.       'The    Holy   Roman 
Empire   might,  and  so  far  as  its  practical  utility  was  con- 
cerned   ought,   now    to    have    been    suffered    to   expire ;    nor 
could  it  have  ended  more  worthily  than  with  the  last  of  the 
Hohenstaufen.'  ^     But  it  was  not  so  to  be.      '  After  the  fall 
of  the    Hohenstaufens    the    prostrate    Empire   recognised   in 
principle  the  supremacy  of  the  Pope ;  the   Habsburgers  con- 
firmed the  theory  that  the  Pope  was  the  light-giving  sun,  the 
Emperor  only  the  pallid  moon  or  lesser  light.     As  the  Popes 
had  formerly   sent  their  decrees  of  election  for  examination 
to  the  Emperor,  so  the  Emperors  now  sent  their  decrees  of 
election  to  the  Popes,  implored  the    latter    to  ratify   them 
and  to  award  them   the  crown  of  Charles  the  Great,  which 
they  patiently  submitted  to  receive  as  a  favour  from  the  Pope 
after  he  had  examined  them   in   person.        The   triumph   of 
the  Church  was  consequently  complete.     The  Imperial  power 
lay  at  the  feet  of  the  Popes,  who,  after  a  memorable  trial  of 
more  than  two  hundred  years,  had  scored  one  of  the  greatest 
victories  known  to  history.'^ 

1  Milman,  vi.  221.  ^  Bryce,  208.  *  Gregorovius,  vi.  120. 


16     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

After  the  ruin  of  the  greatest  of  the  German  houses,  there 
came  the  Kaiserless  time,  the  Great  Interregnum,  during 
which  there  was  no  king  in  Germany,  and  the  election  was 
disputed  between  Richard  of  Cornwall  and  Alfonso  of  Castile. 
Anarchy  everywhere  prevailed  ;  the  great  lords,  spiritual  and 
temporal,  to  whom  Frederic  had  granted  extensive  charters, 
made  war  openly  to  increase  their  domains ;  the  commercial 
leagues  and  the  cities,  on  whose  rising  fortune  he  had  looked 
coldly,  were  forced  to  protect  themselves ;  the  rivers  and 
the  highways  were  infested  with  robber-knights.  With  the 
accession  of  Rudolf  of  Habsburg  in  1273  the  Empire  entered 
on  the  third  stage  of  its  existence  :  it  was  shattered,  crippled, 
degraded  ;  but  it  still  remained  in  the  eyes  of  all  a  necessary 
part  of  the  world's  order  ;  and  it  had  furthermore  become 
indissolubly  connected  with  the  German  kingdom.^  It  had 
been  mighty  as  a  fact,  it  was  still  mighty  as  an  idea;  it 
was  to  inspire  Dante  and  Petrarch  ;  kings  were  still  to  cross 
the  Alps  to  take  the  iron  crown  of  Lombardy  and  the  golden 
crown  of  Empire.  But  the  kingdom  of  Germany  was  hence- 
forth terribly  overweighted  by  the  burden  of  the  Holy 
Roman  Empire. 

The  Papacy  meantime  enjoyed  the  noonday  of  its  triumph. 
Gregory  the  Ninth  had  affirmed  that  the  Pope  was  sovereign 
master  of  all  in  the  world,  and  of  all  their  possessions  ; 
Avhatever  he  might  have  delegated  to  emperor  or  king,  his 
proprietary  right  remained  intact.  Innocent  the  Fourth 
pointed  out  that  the  Donation  of  Constantine  was  merely  a 
restitution  of  what  had  formerly  been  given  him,  that  Christ 
had  transmitted  to  Saint  Peter  the  empire  of  this  world  when 
He  bestowed  on  him  the  two  massy  keys  of  metals  twain. 
Boniface  the  Eighth,  in  the  Bull  Unam  Sandam  (1302),  again 
derived  the  omnipotence  of  the  Pope  from  the  giving  of  the 
two  swords,  one  to  be  used  by  the  Church,  the  other  under 
its  orders,  and  declared  that  whosoever  did  not  believe  that 
every  human  creature  was  subject  to  the  Pope  would  be 
damned  everlastingly.  It  was  this  same  Pope  who  showed 
'  himself  to  the  crowding  pilgrims  at  the  jubilee  of  a.d.  1300, 
seated   on   the  throne   of  Constantine,   arrayed  with    sword 

1  Bryce,  210. 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  EMPIRE  17 

and  crown  and  sceptre,  shouting  aloud,   "  I  am  Caesar  !   I  am 
Emperor  !  " '  ^ 

These  far-reaching  claims  to  temporal  overlordship  at  the 
expense  of  the  temporal  powers  were  for  the  time  successful. 
Gregory  the  Seventh  had  claimed  that  the  Church  was 
entirely  free  from  all  bonds  of  the  State,  and  that  the  civil 
power  needed  not  only  the  assistance,  but  also  the  authority, 
of  the  Church.  Up  to  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century 
this  theory  remained  practically  unquestioned.  It  was  upheld 
by  John  of  Salisbury,  by  Saint  Thomas  Aquinas.  Under 
Gregory  and  Innocent  the  Papacy  had  won  for  itself  the 
respect  of  mankind  by  its  moral  superiority,  by  the  fair  and 
unimpassioned  manner  in  which  it  decided  disputes  among 
the  lay  powers  of  the  earth,  by  its  rectitude  of  purpose  and 
its  nobility  of  principle.  It  had  at  this  time  no  temporal 
power  to  back  its  decisions ;  it  rested  for  the  enforcement  of 
its  orders  on  the  moral  approbation  and  support  of  mankind. 
It  was  secure  above  all  in  the  high  character  of  the  Popes, 
in  their  political  ability  and  discretion  no  less  than  in  their 
conscientiousness  and  virtue.  When  these  qualities  failed 
the  Popes  the  hour  of  danger  came.  The  high  claims  of 
the  Papacy  required  the  best,  the  most  virtuous,  the  wisest 
of  men  to  enforce  them  successfully  ;  when  lesser  men  came, 
who  failed  to  comprehend  and  to  rise  to  the  height  of  their 
great  mission,  then  the  nature  of  their  pretensions  was 
questioned  and  disputed.  Gregory  and  Innocent,  though  the 
greatest  of  the  Popes,  had  been  alike  politic  and  circumspect; 
Gregory  had  given  way  to  William  the  Conqueror ;  the  Kings 
of  France  had  been  invariably  treated  with  deference.  Both 
these  Popes  had  required  the  obedience  of  kings,  but  they 
sought  not  to  abase  them ;  they  upheld  the  royal  dignity 
against  all  save  themselves.  But  it  was  otherwise  with  their 
successors,  Boniface  the  Eighth  and  John  the  Twenty-second  ; 
they  were  men  of  smaller  political  ability,  who  failed  to  read 
the  signs  of  the  times  ;  they  were  intoxicated  with  the  sense 
of  their  own  high  position  ;  they  inherited  the  pretensions  of 
their  predecessors,  and  rashly  and  unwisely  resolved  to  push 
them  to  their  very  uttermost  limits. 

'  Bryce,  lo8. 
B 


18     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

On  Christmas  Eve,  1294,  Benedict  Gaetani   became  Pope 
Boniface  the  Eighth  ;   fourteen  months   later  he  was  at  war 
with  the  eldest  son  of  the  Church.       Philip  the  Fair  had 
diverted  to  his  war  against  England  the  tithes   levied  for  the 
crusade  against  Aragon.    The  Pope,  on  24th  February  1296, 
fulminated  the  decretal   Clericis  Laicos,  forbidding  the  clergy 
to  pay  any  taxes  to  the  civil  power  without  previous  permis- 
sion of  the  Pope.      Neither  Philip  of  France  nor  Edward  of 
England  paid  the  slightest  attention  to  the  decretal.      Philip 
retorted    by    forbidding    the    exportation    of  any    money    to 
Rome.      Boniface  was  at  this  time  at  strife  with  the  Colonnas 
in  Rome  and  with  the  Aragonese  in  Sicily.      He  therefore 
agreed  with  his  adversary  Philip  quickly.      But  in    1301    a 
second  cause  of  dispute  arose,  the  matter  of  the  Bishop   of 
Pamiers.    The  Pope  sent  a  fresh  Bull,  AuscuUa  Fili^  to  Philip, 
which    the    King    burned.       Then    the    French    clergy   were 
summoned  to  Rome  for  council.       But   the  Popes  had,   by 
their    excessive    centralisation    and    by    their    favouring    the 
regulars,  utterly  broken  the   power  and  cowed  the  spirit  of 
the  secular  clergy,  and  they  with  one  accord  began  to  excuse 
themselves.      Philip,  beaten   by  the  Flemish  at  the   battle  of 
Courtrai,  hesitated  a  little,  but  then  plucked  up  spirit,  and  de- 
fended himself  in  his  Responstones.     Boniface  refused  to  accept 
the  King's  excuses,  declared  them   frivolous,  and   threatened 
him   with   pains  spiritual  and   temporal.       The  direction   of 
the  matter  was  left  by  Philip  to  Nogaret.      Boniface  was  at 
his  birthplace,  Agnani.      Nogaret  proceeded  there,  and  was 
joined   by  Sciarra  Colonna  and  others.      Then  followed   the 
Outrage  of  Agnani,  two  centuries  and  a  quarter  after  the 
Humiliation  of  Canossa.      Boniface  died  shortly  after  (11th 
October   1303).      Thus  it  was  that  'the  conqueror   of  the 
Empire  fell  beneath  the  defiance  of  the  French  King,  Philip 
the  Fair,  or  more  truly  beneath  the  irresistible  opposition  of 
a  strong  national  spirit  in  the  kingdoms  of  Europe.'  ^      Boni- 
face was  unable  to  see  that  the   pretension  to  temporal  lord- 
ship which  he  put  forward  had  outlived  its  time,  that  a  spirit 
was   born  in   the  countries  of  Western  Europe  which  would 
no  longer   suffer  the  Pope's   dominion  in   matters   temporal. 

^  Poole,  248. 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  EMPIRE  19 

The  Popes  had  pretended  to  spiritual  and  to  temporal  lord- 
ship ;  the  fourteenth  century  was  to  teach  them  that  they 
had  no  temporal  dominion  over  the  kingdoms  of  Europe  ;  it 
was  also  to  contest  their  spiritual  claims.  Nearly  all  the 
literature  hitherto  had  been  on  the  side  of  the  Papacy, 
exaltinir  its  claims.  Now  the  tide  had  turned.  The  claims 
of  the  Papacy  were  to  be  brought  low  ;  the  claims  of  the 
Empire  were  to  be  exalted. 

The  opposition  to  the  temporal  claims  of  the  Papacy 
naturally  first  became  prominent  in  France  during  the  strife 
between  Philip  the  Fair  and  Boniface  the  Eighth  ;  there  had 
been  very  few  jurists  or  political  philosophers  able  to  take 
up  the  cudgels  in  Germany  for  the  Hohenstaufen.  But  in 
the  University  of  Paris  intellectual  life  and  discussion  were 
vigorous.  Pierre  du  Bois,  a  royal  advocate  in  the  bailliage 
of  Coutances,  published  his  treatise,  the  Qiiaestio  de  Potestatc 
Papae^  and  probably  four  other  treatises  also,  about  the  year 
1303  ;  John  of  Paris  published  his  Tractatus  de  Potestatc 
regia  et  papali  at  the  same  time.  Both  writers  start  with 
the  assumption  that  France  forms  no  part  of  the  Empire, 
and  hence  they  are  able  to  treat  their  subjects  in  a  philo- 
sophical spirit.  Their  arguments  are  derived  from  the  Bible 
and  Aristotle,  but  passages  from  the  Bible  which  had 
previously  been  understood  in  a  mystical  sense  are  now  taken 
literally.  In  the  '  Dispute  between  the  Soldier  and  the 
Clerk,'  the  former  relies  on  Christ's  words,  '  My  kingdom  is 
not  of  this  world.'  '  Christ,'  he  says,  '  ordained  Peter  to  be 
priest  and  bishop,  but  never  dubbed  him  knight  nor  crowned 
him  king ' ;  he  draws  a  sharp  distinction  between  spiritual 
and  temporal  matters  ;  it  is  for  the  Pope  to  punish  sins,  for 
the  king  to  punish  crimes ;  for  the  latter  to  enforce  civil 
rights,  for  the  former  spiritual ;  the  servants  of  the  I^ord 
should  take  thought  only  for  what  is  necessary,  they  should 
devote  their  superfluities  to  good  works ;  since  the  King  has 
to  take  thought  for  the  general  safety,  he  can  tax  the  clergy 
as  well  as  the  laity ;  he  can  alter  the  laws,  customs,  and 
privileges  of  his  kingdom  as  necessity  may  require.^  Pierre 
du  Bois  regarded  the  Papacy  merely  as  a  state,  possessing  no 

''■  Riezler,  147. 


20     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

temporal  authority  over  France,  as  a  state  with  which  the 
French  King  could  treat  just  as  he  treated  with  any  other 
state.  John  of  Paris  was  no  less  outspoken.  He  admitted 
that  the  Church  might  own  property,  but  she  held  it  not  '  by 
virtue  of  any  vicarship  of  apostolical  succession,  but  simply 
by  way  of  grant  from  princes  or  other  persons,  or  by  similar 
titles  of  succession.''  ^  He  defines  the  temporal  power  as  the 
rule  by  one  of  many  for  the  common  good ;  the  spiritual 
power  he  describes  as  that  conferred  on  the  Church  by  Christ 
for  the  dispensation  of  the  sacraments  to  the  faithful.  It  is 
necessary  that  there  should  be  one  spiritual  authority  over  the 
whole  world,  but  it  is  not  necessary  that  there  should  be  one 
temporal  power.  As  Head  of  the  Church  the  Pope  has  a 
limited  control  over  the  goods  of  the  clergy,  but  he  has  none 
over  the  goods  of  the  laity,  for  Christ  had  none ;  if  the 
destruction  of  the  swine  be  alleged,  they  were  probably  wild 
pigs,  and  at  any  rate  were  not  good  for  the  Jews  to  eat. 
Christ  only  gave  spiritual  power  to  Peter ;  He  gave  him  no 
temporal  power  ;  if  so,  what  was  the  good  of  the  Donation 
of  Constantine  ?  The  Emperor  possesses  a  temporal  jurisdic- 
tion, the  Pope  a  spiritual.  If  the  former  falls  into  sin  or 
unbelief,  the  Pope  can  warn  him  or  excommunicate  him  ;  if 
the  Pope,  on  the  other  hand,  practises  usury,  or  otherwise 
breaks  the  temporal  law  of  the  Empire,  the  Emperor  can 
warn  and  punish  him,  as  the  examples  of  Constantine  the 
Second  and  John  the  Twelfth  prove.  The  Pope  possessed 
no  temporal  overlordship  ;  the  delivery  of  the  two  swords 
to  Peter,  which  the  Papacy  had  always  interpreted  in  a 
literal  sense,  was  taken  by  their  opponents  in  a  mystical  or 
figurative  sense  only,  from  which  no  argument  could  be 
drawn. 

Rather  earlier  than  these  works  is  that  of  Jordan  of 
Osnabruck,  probably  about  1285,  on  the  Holy  Roman 
Empire;  rather  later,  about  1307-1310,  is  the  work  of  the 
Abbot  of  Admont ;  then  a  year  or  two  after  this  appeared 
Dante's  well-known  De  Monarchia.  These  writers  believed 
in  a  world-monarchy  as  essential  for  the  welfare  of  the  world  ; 
they  held  the  existing  Empire  to  be  a  continuation  of  that  of 

^  Riezler,  149. 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  EMPIRE  21 

Rome,  and  traced  it  back  through  .^neas  the  Trojan  to  the 
fourth  great  beast  spoken  of  by  Daniel  the  Prophet.  The 
Em])ire,  therefore,  dated  from  a  time  when  Popes  and  Bishops 
were  unheard  of;  it  was  universal;  other  kingdoms — Spain, 
France,  Hungary,  and  the  like — might  be  independent  of  it  ; 
but  their  position  established  no  common  law;  an  Empire 
was  necessary  to  fight  the  unbeliever.  After  Charles  the 
Great  had  restored  to  the  Church  the  temporalities  rent  away 
by  the  Lombards,  after  he  had  bestowed  on  it  the  Duchies  of 
Benevento  and  Spoleto,  Pope  Hadrian,  in  a  Council  at  Rome, 
had  formally  acknowledged  the  King's  right  to  choose  the 
Pope ;  and  Pope  Leo  the  Third  had  adored  Charles  after  he 
had  been  crowned  Augustus  Imperator  in  800.  Christ's 
promise  to  Peter,  that  whatsoever  he  bound  on  earth  to  be 
bound  in  heaven,  Dante  refers  entirely  to  the  spiritual  juris- 
diction of  the  Popes  ;  he  rejects  the  simile  of  the  sun  and 
the  moon,  and  also  that  of  the  two  swords. 

Lupoid  of  Bebenburg  took  up  the  theory  of  Dante,  and 
pressed  it  to  its  limits.  He  began  by  showing  that  Charles 
the  Great  was  a  Teuton,  that  France  was  one  of  the  countries 
subject  to  the  Teuton  Emperor,  and  that  the  translation  in 
the  time  of  Otto  was  merely  a  renewal  of  that  in  the  time  of 
Charles.  The  Empire  had  been  transferred,  not  by  the  Pope, 
but  by  the  Roman  people.  The  Donation  of  Constantine 
was  a  fiction  ;  all  that  Constantine  had  done  was  to  choose  a 
Pope,  in  order  to  be  anointed  by  him,  and  to  appoint  Rome 
for  his  dwelling,  while  he  himself  went  to  Byzantium  ;  but  he 
divided  the  Empire,  east  and  west,  between  his  sons.  The 
right  to  elect  the  Emperor  had  been  derived,  not  from  the 
Church,  but  from  the  princes  and  people,  who  had  transferred 
it  to  the  Electors  in  the  time  of  Otto  the  Third.  Their 
election  gave  full  right  to  the  King ;  the  Pope's  investigation, 
prior  to  anointing  and  crowning,  might  in  the  case  of  a 
King  who  had  committed  sin  and  refused  to  do  penance, 
result  in  excommunication,  and  even  in  his  consequent 
deposition  by  the  Electors.  The  anointing  and  crowning  by 
the  Pope  was  not  indeed  an  empty  form,  for  it  invested  the 
Emperor  with  the  rightful  sway  over  lands  which  he  had  not 
yet  subdued ;  for  the  sway  of  the  Emperor  extended  to  the 


22     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

whole  world. ^  It  was  unfortunate  that  these  elaborate 
theories  as  to  the  world-wide  extension  of  the  Empire  should 
only  have  been  perfected  when  the  Empire  itself  was  in 
decadence.  Dante's  book  was  '  an  epitaph  instead  of  a  pro- 
phecy ' : "  so,  too,  were  the  works  of  Lupoid  of  Bebenburg. 

After  the  Outrage  of  Agnani,  and  the  short  pontificate  of 
Benedict  the  Eleventh,  the  new  Pope,  Clement  the  Fifth,  was 
elected  on  the  5th  June  1305.  He  was  a  Frenchman, 
Bertrand  de  Got,  Archbishop  of  Bordeaux ;  he  was  crowned 
at  Lyons,  and  never  set  foot  in  Italy.  Now  followed  the 
Babylonish  Captivity  at  the  '  sinful  city  of  Avenon "" ;  for 
seventy  years  the  Popes  dwelt  in  the  wide  windy  plain 
between  the  Alps  and  Cevennes ;  they  steadily  lost  their 
prestige  in  the  eyes  of  Europe,  and  were  regarded  as  the 
obedient  henchmen  of  the  French  King.  Seven  Popes  in 
succession  were  Frenchmen  ;  all,  without  exception,  were  more 
or  less  dependent  on  France.^  Several  of  them  were  excellent 
administrators ;  they  also  pushed  missionary  effort  in  the 
East,  and  endeavoured  thus  to  enlarge  the  borders  of 
Christendom,  But  their  situation  damaged  them  in  the  eyes 
of  other  countries ;  the  College  of  Cardinals  became  pre- 
ponderatingly  French  ;  the  Curia  was  largely  officered  by 
Frenchmen ;  the  Pope  was  compromised  in  the  eyes  of  the 
world  ;  he  was  no  longer  regarded  as  the  impartial  judge,  as 
the  supreme  Father  of  Christendom,  to  whom  kings  and 
litigants  might  look  for  arbitration  and  justice.  There  arose 
a  feeling  of  antagonism  to  the  Papacy  which  had  thus  be- 
come of  one  nation.  If  the  long  strife  between  the  Popes 
and  the  Hohenstaufen  had  shaken  the  belief  in  the  concord 
and  connection  of  the  Empire  and  the  Papacy,  the  feeling 
was  strengthened  when  men  saw  the  Papacy  become  little 
better  than  the  mere  ecclesiastical  department  of  a  kingdom 
notoriously  at  variance  with  the  Empire.  And  yet  the 
Popes  at  Avignon  were  much  more  independent  in  their 
policy  than  they  were  popularly  credited  with  being.  The 
most  submissive  Pope,  Clement  the  Fifth,  by  his  policy  of 
masterly  inactivity,  thwarted  the  wishes  of  the  King  of  France 
in  the  very  matter  of  the  Empire.  Damaged  and  battered 
'  Riezler,  180-192.  -  Bryce,  276.  ^  Pastor,  i.  58. 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  EMPIRE  28 

as  the   imperial   crown   might  be,  the  old   belief  in  a  world- 
empire    was    still    strong ;   it  was  supported   by  the  clerical 
character  of  all  culture  and  by  the  study  of  Roman  Law. 
The  practical  question  was  now  not  so  much  the  mere  exist- 
ence as  the  practical  exercise  of  this  empire ;   was  it  necessary 
that  it  should  be  always  German  ?    If  an  Englishman  and 
a   Castilian   had   been,   might    not   a   Frenchman   be  elected 
Emperor  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire,  and  with  more  power, 
gain  a  wider  and  more  real  sway  ?      Albert  of  Austria,  King 
of   the    Romans,  was   assassinated    on    the    1st  May    1308  ; 
Charles  of  Valois,  the  French  King's  brother,  was  a  candidate 
for   the   Empire.       Clement    saw    the   overwhelming    power 
which   such  a  choice  would   give  France  ;  he  prevaricated  and 
delayed;  he  would  not  in  so  many  words  recommend  Charles 
to  the  Archbishops  of  the  Rhine.      The  secular  electors  were 
equally  averse  to  the  choice  of  a  Frenchman.     Baldwin,  Arch- 
bishop of  Trier,  suggested  a  compromise  :  his  brother,  Henry 
of  Luxemburg,  was  elected,  and  France  was  checkmated  (1 308). 
He  was  crowned  Emperor  at  Rome  in  1312  ;  he  died  in  Italy 
in  1313.     Next  year  there  was  a  double  election  in  Germany. 
Clement  the  Fifth  died  in   1314  ;  his  successor  was   not 
elected  until  1316.      John  the  Twenty-second  determined  to 
urge    against   the    Empire   the    most  extreme   claims  of  the 
Papacy.      He  pushed  his  pretensions  further  even  than  Boni- 
face the  Eighth.      Since   Christ  had  invested  Peter  with  the 
temporal   no   less   than   with   the  spiritual   kingdom   of   this 
world,   it   followed   that   what  the  Pope  had  given,  in  the 
Translation  of  the  Empire,  the  Pope  could  also  take  away  ; 
and   that   when    the    Emperor  died   the  jurisdiction    of  the 
Empire    reverted    to    the    Pope,  and  that  it  was  for  him  to 
appoint    the    new    Emperor.       The   Pope,    says   Augustinus 
Triumphus,   who   dedicated   his  treatise  Sutnma  de  Potestate 
Ecclesiastica  to  Pope  John  between   1324  and  1328,^  may 
choose   an   Emperor   at    his    own    discretion,    depriving    the 
established  Electors  of  their  privilege,  and   thus  altering  the 
constitution  of  the  Empire."      This   was    the    contention    of 
Pope  John,  and  this  was  the  crux  of  the  quarrel  between  the 
Popes  and  Louis  of  Bavaria.^      The  Germans  contended  that 
*  Riezler,  301.  *  Poole,  254.  ^  Riezler,  120. 


24     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

it  was  for  the  Electors  to  choose  the  future  Emperor,  and 
for  the  Pope  to  crown  the  object  of  their  choice;  that  in  the 
event  of  a  contested  election,  it  was  for  the  God  of  Battles 
to  decide  between  the  rival  candidates.^  Louis  of  Bavaria 
had  been  elected  by  five  Electors,  Frederic  of  Austria  by 
two ;  and  the  God  of  Battles  at  Miihldorf  had  decided  in 
favour  of  Louis.  The  claim  of  the  Pope  was  not  one  which 
the  Electors  could  pass  over  in  silence.  They  met  at  Reuse 
and  at  Frankfurt  in  1338,  and  resolved  that  the  prince 
elected  by  them  became  King  of  the  Romans  without  further 
ceremony,  without  need  for  Papal  confirmation.  Eighteen 
years  later  this  position  was  upheld  by  that  good  Son  of  the 
Church,  Charles  the  Fourth ;  the  Golden  Bull  passed  over  in 
complete  silence  the  Papal  claims  to  veto  or  confirm  an 
election,  or  to  administer  the  Empire  during  a  vacancy. 
Pope  John  the  Twenty-second,  however,  who  even  went  so 
far  at  one  time  as  to  determine  to  oust  the  Empire  from  all 
claim  to  overlordship  or  concern  in  Italy,^  was  firm  to  ob- 
stinacy in  his  quarrel  with  the  Emperor,  and  demanded  that 
Louis  should  resign  his  crown.  This  advance  in  the  Papal 
pretensions  took  place  at  a  critical  time.  The  Empire  had 
lost  its  old  prestige.  France,  England,  Poland,  Hungary, 
Scandinavia,  no  longer  acknowledged  any  German  overlord- 
ship ;  early  in  the  fourteenth  century  French  jurists  had 
denied  in  express  terms  that  France  formed  any  part  of  the 
Empire.  There  were  reasons,  they  said,  which  warranted  the 
Pope'^s  interference  in  Germany,  which  were  inapplicable  to 
France  or  to  England,  seeing  that  these  countries  had  not 
been  included  in  the  Donation  of  Constantine.^  The  Ger- 
mano-Roman  Empire  was  already  in  the  eyes  of  foreigners 
dwindling  into  a  mere  German  kingdom.  It  was  at  this 
time,  when  the  power  of  Germany  was  thus  diminished,  when 
the  Pope  at  Avignon  was  regarded  as  a  virtual  dependant  of 
the  King  of  France,  that  these  extraordinary  claims  were  put 
forward.  So  vast,  so  unlimited  were  the  pretensions  of  John, 
as  of  Boniface,  that  in  the  countries  where  a  feeling  of 
nationality  was  gradually  rising  into  existence,  where  the 
modern  consciousness  of  patriotism  was  then  taking  birth, 
^  Riezler,  loo.  -  Ibid.  87.  '^  Ibid.  143. 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  EMPIRE  25 

these  pretensions  naturally  caused  revolt,  and  a  serious 
diminution  of  the  actual  power  of  the  Pope  necessarily 
ensued. 

The  gradual  disappearance  of  the  old  feeling  of  citizenship 
in  a  world-empire,  which  was  a  very  different  sentiment  from 
modem  cosmopolitanism,  had  allowed  room  for  the  growth 
of  the  new  feeling  of  nationality.  So  long  as  the  older  and 
wider  sentiment  existed,  the  newer  and  more  local  pride  in 
one's  own  country  could  not  commence  ;  but  with  the  gradual 
disappearance  of  the  former,  the  latter  feeling,  in  countries 
where  the  different  parts  and  peoples  cohered  sufficiently, 
gradually  took  its  place.  In  such  countries  it  began  naturally 
where  they  had  been  longest  separated  from  the  Empire. 
England  was  the  first  country  to  become  distinctly  a  nation 
with  an  independent,  self-centred  life  and  policy ;  Saxons  and 
Normans  and  Britons  had  coalesced  into  one  people,  and  that 
people  had  become  a  nation  with  a  patriotism  of  its  own. 
The  acquisition  of  the  large  kingdom  of  Toulouse  toward  the 
close  of  the  thirteenth  century  allowed  a  similar  feeling  to 
develop  in  France,  but  Brittany,  and  to  a  lesser  extent 
Guyenne,  was  still  a  land  apart ;  and  it  was  not  until  the 
time  of  Joan  of  Arc  that  the  sentiment  of  nationality  be- 
came general.  La  Pucelle  was  the  godmother  of  modern 
France.  In  1344  King  Peter  of  Aragon  told  PoaikJClement 
the  Sixth  that  in  worldly  matters  he  recognised  no  superior 
save  God  ;  and  the  same  feeling  prevailed  in  Scandinavia  and 
in  Hungary.  In  Italy,  however,  although  loyalty  to  the 
Empire  was  cold  and  interested,  no  feeling  of  nationality 
took  its  place  ;  it  was  supplanted  by  a  narrower  sentiment 
of  pride  in  one's  own  city  or  republic ;  a  man  was  proud  of 
being  a  citizen  of  Florence,  Bologna,  or  Perugia,  but  he  felt 
no  pride  in  being  an  Italian.  In  Germany  disruption  was 
"  general  :  the  man  of  Bremen  had  no  sympathy  with  the  man 
of  Frankfurt,  the  Westphalian  had  nothing  in  common  with 
the  Saxon  or  the  Bavarian.  But  although  Louis  of  Bavaria 
had  no  patriotism  at  his  back  to  help  him  in  his  struggle  with 
the  Papacy,  he  had  other  and  very  formidable  allies. 

The   new    quarrel    between   the  Empire   and    the   Papacy 
began  in  1323.     A  year  or  two  later,  between  the  summer 


26      IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

of  1324  and  the  autumn  of  1326,^  Marsiglio  of  Padua,  with 
the  help  of  John   of  Jandun,  published  his  Defensor  Pads,  a 
work  startlingly   modern  in   its  thought  and  reasoning.      So 
utterly  divergent    is   it    from    mediseval   sentiment  that  it  is 
small  wonder  that  Pope  Clement  the  Sixth,  when  he  read  it, 
exclaimed  that  he  had  never  come  across  a  worse  heretic  than 
this  Marsiglio.     The  Italian  physician,  rector  of  the  University 
of  Paris,  was  forty-five  years  of  age  at  this  time,  a  man  imbued 
with  the  Politics  of  Aristotle  and  with  the  arguments  of  the 
French  apologists  for  Philip  the  Fair ;  he  was  in  the  Middle 
Age  but  not  of  it ;  a  cold-blooded   political  philosopher,  he 
was   of  the  eighteenth,  or  of  the  twentieth,  century  rather 
than  of  the  fourteenth.    Some  of  his  theories  were  realised  at 
the  Reformation,  some  in  the  political  revolutions,  some  are 
still  on  the  anvil  of  Time.      His   work  is  a  defence  of  the 
State  against  the   Church.      The   State   is   a   community   to 
ensure   a   good    life    in    this   world    and   in    the  next.      The 
sovereign    body    is   the    community    of   the    citizens    or    the 
majority  of  them  ;  and  if  it  be  alleged  that   most  men  are 
fools,  still  a  man   often   grasps  an   idea  when  it  is  put  forth 
by   another,   and    thus    understands    what   he   himself   could 
neither  have   initiated    nor    discovered.       One   duty    of  the 
sovereign  body  is  to  make  the  laws  necessary  for  the  enforce- 
ment  of  right ;  a  law   is  a  rule,  by  whatever  name  known, 
enforced  by  a  sanction.      All   are  entitled  to  participate  in 
the  making  of  laws  except  minors,  bondsmen,  strangers,  and 
women.      Laws  are  best  prepared  by  the  old  and  experienced 
rather  than    by   handicraftsmen  ;    by    them   they  should   be 
presented  to  the  assembly  for  discussion,  before  being  passed, 
amended,  or  rejected.      Another  duty  of  the  sovereign  body 
is  to  appoint  their  ruler ;  he  should   be  one  who  will  conduct 
himself  according  to  their  will  ;  he  must  be  clever  and  capable, 
and    supported   by  a    sufficient    body    of  troops    to  enforce 
obedience  but  not  to  usurp  authority ;  it  is  for  him  to  en- 
force the  laws  of  which  the  sovereign   body  or  their  repre- 
sentatives declare  the  meaning  ;  his  correction  and  his  removal 
rest  with  the  sovereign   body,  but  his  slight  deviations  from 
the  law  should  be  winked  at.      All   this  was  fine  theory,  far 

^  Riezler,  196. 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  EMPIRE  27 

ahead  of  the  times ;  it  would  have  been  passed  in  silence  by 
the  Church. 

The  head  and   front  of  Marsiglio's   offending   was    when 
he   came   to   deal    with    the    relations   between    Church   and 
State.      It  is  to  the  interference  of  the  Popes,  of  Clement  the 
Fifth  with  Henry  the  Seventh,  of  Boniface  the  Eighth  with 
Philip  the  Fair,  of  John  the  Twenty-second  with   Louis  of 
Bavaria,   that    he  attributes  the  trouble  and   unrest   in   the 
world.     The  Pope  has  assumed  a  primacy  which  Saint  Peter 
never  possessed  over  the  other  apostles  ;  he  bases  his  claim  on 
the  Donation  of  Constantine,  which  is  vague  and  obsolete  and 
restricted  ;  on  the  plenitudo  potestatis^  which  is  not  warranted 
by  Scripture  as  pretended.      The  Emperors   formerly  regu- 
lated the  election   of  Popes  ;   and   if  they  allowed  themselves 
to  be  consecrated  by  the  Pope,  this  gave  him  no  more  right 
over  them  than  the  Archbishop  of  Rheims  has  over  the  King 
of  France.      Christ  bestowed  on  His  apostles  spiritual  powers, 
but  no  coercive  jurisdiction    enabling  them   to  interfere   in 
temporal   affairs  ;    His  kingdom  was  not  of  this  world  ;   He 
ordained  His  followers  to  teach  His  gospel  and  to  administer 
the  sacraments.     The  power  of  the  keys,  the  power  to   loose 
and  to   bind,    refers  only  to  the  sacrament  of  penance  ;  and 
here  the   forgiveness  of  sins  belongs  to  God  alone  ;  the  priest 
cannot  forgive  a  hypocrite  nor  refuse  absolution  to  a  penitent ; 
he    is   merely  the    turnkey    carrying    out    the   orders    of  the 
Divine  Judge.      The  Church  is  the  community  of  all  believers  ; 
the  laity  have   as   good   a   right   as   the  priests  to  be  styled 
viri  ecclesiastici ;  all   alike  are  subject  to  the  temporal  law, 
though    bishops    and    priests    ought   to  be    punished    more 
severely  than  others  because  they  are  more  enlightened.     Sins 
are  to   be  admonished   by  the  clergy,  but  their  punishment 
belongs   to    God,   and  is  reserved   for  the  next  world ;  even 
heresy  can  only  be  punished  on  earth  so  far  as  it  is  contrary 
to   the   temporal  law.      Excommunication,  again,  cannot    be 
pronounced  by  any  single  priest  or  bishop  ;  it  is  reserved  for 
the  community  or  for  a  general  council ;  for  Christ  commanded 
not,  when  thy  brother  sin  against  thee,  to  tell  it  to  the  bishop 
or  priest  or  the  College  of  Cardinals,  but  to   tell  it  to  the 
Church.      Moreover,  all  priests  should  follow  their  Master  in 


28     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

apostolic  poverty  and  in  contempt  of  this  world  ;  they  should 
possess  no  real  property ;  they  should  have  no  right  to  follow 
personal  property  into  the  hands  of  others  ;  benefices  belong 
to  the  patrons,  not  to  the  Church.  The  Catholic  Faith  rests 
on  the  Bible  only,  not  on  decrees  or  decretals  of  Popes  or 
Cardinals  ;  doubts  as  to  the  interpretation  of  the  Scripture 
should  be  settled  by  a  general  council,  on  which  laity  and 
clergy  alike  sit ;  the  council  is  convoked  by  the  sovereign  body, 
the  Pope  as  Bishop  of  Rome  presides,  but  has  no  coercive 
jurisdiction  beyond  what  is  conferred  by  the  council. 

The  pretensions  of  the  Popes  against  the  Empire  are  then 
discussed.  The  shortsightedness  of  the  Emperors  in  allowing 
themselves  to  be  crowned  and  anointed  had  engendered  in  the 
Popes  the  pretension  that  their  confirmation  of  the  choice  of 
the  Electors  is  necessary,  thereby  making  the  seven  Electors 
of  as  little  account  as  if  they  were  seven  barbers  or  seven 
blind  men  ;  the  authority  of  the  King  is  derived  from  the 
sovereign  body  or  their  proctors.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  such 
papal  confirmation  is  entirely  unnecessary ;  the  right  con- 
ferred by  election  is  complete  and  needs  no  recognition  or 
confirmation  by  the  Pope  to  supplement  it. 

'  This  remarkable  work  of  Marsiglio,'  says  Creighton,^ 
'  stands  on  the  very  threshold  of  modern  history  as  a  clear 
forecast  of  the  ideas  which  were  to  regulate  the  future 
progress  of  Europe.'  With  this  work  in  their  hands  the  two 
students  appeared  at  the  Court  at  Nuernberg.  '  By  God  ! ' 
said  King  Louis,  '  who  can  have  induced  you  to  leave  that 
land  of  peace  and  quiet  for  this  warlike  kingdom  of  uproar 
and  trouble  ?  ^  They  explained.  There  was  a  consultation. 
Finally  the  King  received  them  with  open  arms,  appointed 
Marsiglio  his  physician,  and  soon  installed  him  as  his  coun- 
sellor. '  I  am  a  man  of  war,'  said  Louis,  '  and  understand 
nothing  of  sciences  and  learned  subtleties.'  In  1327  the 
King  entered  Italy,  and  Marsiglio,  who  was  allowed  to  preach 
against  the  Pope,  was  soon  in  a  position  to  carry  his  theories 
into  practice. 

On  the  17th  January  1328,  Louis  was  chosen  to  be 
Emperor  by  the  acclamation  of  the  Roman  people,  and 
^  Creighton,  i.  46. 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  EMPIRE  29 

Sciarra    Colonna,    who    twenty-five   years    earlier    had    stood 
'in    the   burning    palace    of    Agnani,    his    sword   pointed    at 
the    Pope's    breast,'    placed    the    crown    of    Empire    on    his 
head.      It  was  the  realisation  of  the  theory  of  Marsiglio  ;  it 
was  also  the  first  time    a    German   King  had    ever   received 
the  sacred  diadem   from    the   people  of  Rome.^      A   public 
parliament  was  held  on  the   18th  April,  and  the   Pope  was 
deposed  ;  Peter  of  Corbara,  a  Franciscan  friar,  was  elected  Pope 
by  the  people  of  Rome  on   the  12th  May,  and   the  Emperor 
set  the  crown  on  his  head.      Louis,  however,  was  but  a  pinch- 
beck Emperor,  a  mere  parody  of  Frederic  the  Second  ;  and 
the  proceedings  at  Rome  must  have  appeared  ridiculous  in  the 
eyes  of  all  sober  Christians.      Frederic  the  Second  was  a  man 
of  moderation  when  compared    with   the   rash   revolutionary 
Louis  of  Bavaria.^      The  revulsion  soon  came.      The  King  was 
unable  to  make  any  headway  against  Robert  of  Naples.     The 
fickle   Romans  turned  against  him.       Louis,  the  anti-Pope, 
the  anti- cardinals   left  Rome  amid  showers  of  stones,  and  the 
dominion  of  the  rightful  Pope  was  at  once  restored.     Disaster 
dogged  the  Emperor's  footsteps  :   his  troops    mutinied ;    his 
adversaries  in  Germany  threatened  to  set  up  a  new  king ;  he 
was  compelled  to  leave  Italy  ;  his  journey  to  Rome  had   been 
utterly   unsuccessful ;    '  its   actual   result    was   the    extinction 
of  the  last  shadow  of  respect  enjoyed  by  the  Empire,  and  the 
entire  destruction  of  the  dream  of  Dante  and  the  Ghibelines, 
who  had  expected  the  salvation  of  Italy  at  the  hands  of  the 
Roman  Emperor.'  ^ 

Louis  had  failed  disastrously  in  his  Italian  expedition,  but 
to  his  court  at  Munich  there  flocked  all  the  most  influential 
thinkers  and  writers  of  the  day.  Michael  of  Cesena,  the 
General  of  the  Franciscan  Order,  who  counted  Pope  John  a 
heretic  because  he  exposed  the  absurdity  of  their  theory  of 
apostolic  poverty,  composed  a  '  Tractate  against  the  errors  of 
the  Pope.'  Like  Marsiglio,  he  upheld  a  general  council  as 
superior  in  authority  ;  a  Pope  may  err,  as  many  have  erred, 
in  faith  and  morals,  but  a  council  representing  the  Universal 
Church  is  free  from  error.  Bonagratia  of  Bergamo,  Ubertino 
of  Casale,  Francesco  of  Ascoli,  and  his  namesake  of  Marca, 
1  Gregorovius,  vi.  147.  ^  Ibid.  vi.  159.  ^  Md.  vi.  173. 


30     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

Heinrich  of  Thalheini,  Parisian  and  Italian  professors,  Eng- 
lish and  German  Franciscans — all  were  found  at  the  Bavarian 
court.  The  most  famous  of  all  was  the  Englishman,  William 
of  Ockham,  the  nominalist  leader  who  had  finally  settled  the 
controversy  of  the  schools.  '  Defend  me  with  your  sword, 
and  I  will  defend  you  with  my  pen,**  was  his  greeting  to  the 
monarch — a  greeting  which  was  repeated  three  hundred  years 
later  by  a  much  smaller  divine  to  our  own  King  James  the 
First.  Ockham  took  part  in  the  active  resistance  to  the 
Pope,  and  his  writings  are  his  defence  and  justification.  He 
wrote  as  a  mediaeval  philosopher,  and  hence  his  works, 
though  they  lack  the  modern  thought  and  brilliance  of 
Marsiglio,  had  much  more  influence  with  his  contemporaries. 
He  'handed  down  a  light  which  was  never  suffered  to  be 
extinguished,  and  which  served  as  a  beacon  to  pioneers  of 
reform  like  Wyclif  and  Hus.'  ^  He  also  holds  that  the  Pope 
is  fallible,  but  even  a  general  council,  to  which  women  as  well 
as  men  should  be  admitted,  may  also  err ;  in  which  case, 
'  errayite  tola  multitudine  Christianorum  .  .  .  possimt  salvari 
promiss'iones  Clir'isti  per  parvulos  haptizatos.''  ^  Like  Mar- 
siglio, William  of  Ockham  was  not  really  in  love  with  the 
imperial  idea  ;  '  all  that  is  of  importance  to  them  is  to  erect 
the  estate  into  an  organic,  consolidated  force  independent  of, 
and  in  its  own  province  superior  to,  that  of  the  spirituality  ; 
and  this  done,  they  circumscribe  even  the  spiritual  part  of 
the  papal  authority  by  making  it  in  all  respects  subject  to 
the  general  voice  of  Christendom.'  ^ 

The  writings  of  the  refugees,  the  declarations  of  the 
German  Electors  at  Rense  and  the  German  Estates  at  Frank- 
furt, had  shattered  the  Hildebrandine  doctrine  of  the  civil 
supremacy  of  the  Papacy.  Not  merely  the  religious  dissidents 
and  the  speculative  philosophers,  but  those  who  were  dissatis- 
fied with  the  moral  conditions  of  the  Curia  and  the  clergy, 
those  who  were  shocked  by  the  pomp  and  simony,  the  extor- 
tion and  sensuality  which  disfigured  the  Church,  were  inclined 
to  group  themselves  under  the  aegis  of  the  Empire,  its  former 
associate  but  now  its  rival.      The  Empire  was  still  the  centre 

^  Poole,  277.  "^  Goldast,  Monarchiae  S,  Romani  Iniperii,  ii.  506. 

^  Poole,  279. 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  EMPIRE  31 

of  knighthood,  the  maker  of  kings  ;  it  had  been  ruled  uni- 
formly for  four  centuries,  from  Henry  the  Fowler  to  Charles 
the  Fourth,  by  men  of  character  and  energy,  who  spent 
themselves  freely  in  the  service  of  the  State. 

John  the  Twenty-second  died  in  1334,  just  as  he  was  to 
be  sunnnoned  before  a  council  for  a  fresh  heresy ;  Benedict 
the  Twelfth,  who  would  have  given  his  soul  to  reconcile  the 
Emperor,  if  he  had  had  another  soul  in  addition  to  that  which 
was  already  pledged  to  the  King  of  France,  died  in  1342  ;  and 
at  this  time  Louis  took  a  step  which  proved  fatal  to  him. 
Margaret  Maultasch,  of  the  Tirol,  who  had  married  a  son  of 
King  John  of  Bohemia,  grew  tired  of  her  husband,  discarded 
him,  and  threw  herself  on  the  protection  of  the  Emperor. 
Louis  pronounced  her  divorce,  and  according  to  the  theories 
of  Marsiglio  of  Fadua  and  William  of  Ockham,  he  was  able 
to  justify  this  step  ;  but  his  glaring  self-seeking  was  apparent 
when  he  married  '  pock-mouthed  ]Meg '  to  his  own  son,  Louis 
of  Brandenburg.  The  clergy  were  up  in  arms  at  his  assump- 
tion of  clerical  powers,  the  lay  princes  were  disgusted  at  the 
addition  of  the  Tirol  to  the  House  of  Bavaria.  Pope  Clement 
the  Sixth  was  now  able  to  raise  an  anti-imperial  party  in 
Germany  ;  he  deposed  the  Archbishop  of  Mainz,  who  adhered 
to  Louis,  and  appointed  Gerlach  of  Nassau  in  his  place  ;  the 
three  Archbishops,  the  King  of  Bohemia,  and  Rudolf  of 
Saxony  then  formally  elected  Charles  of  Bohemia  as  King  of 
the  Romans.  War  between  the  rival  monarchs  was  averted 
by  the  death  of  Louis,  while  boar-hunting  near  Munich,  on 
the  11th  October  1347. 

Charles,  the  Pfaffen-Kaiser  or  parson's  Emperor,  was  now 
King  of  the  Romans.  His  succession,  however,  was  not 
undisputed.  The  deposed  Archbishop  of  Mainz,  and  three 
others  who  claimed  electoral  votes,  offered  the  crown  to 
Edward  the  Third,  to  Louis  of  Brandenburg,  to  Frederic  of 
Meissen,  all  of  whom  declined  the  honour.  They  finally  elected 
Gunther  of  Schwartzburg,  who  accepted  it,  but  died  on  the 
14th  June  1350,  leaving  Charles  undisputed  King.  The  new 
monarch  was  a  man  of  rare  diplomatic  ability  and  of  no 
illusions.  He  had  been  with  his  father  in  Italy,  and  knew 
that  Italy  was  only  a  clog  on  Germany.     Rudolf  of  Habsburg 


32      IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

had    abandoned    to  the    Pope  the  territories  of  Matilda  of 
Tuscany.     Charles,  when  he  went  into  Italy,  appointed  existing 
rulers   to  be  vicars   of   the    Empire,  in  the  hope  that  they 
might   thereby  acknowledge  its    shadowy  feudal   superiority, 
but  he  renounced   all   those  territorial  rights   for  which  his 
predecessors  had   fought.      He  had  also  lived  in  France,  and 
knew  the   danger   of  territorial   encroachment   on  that  side, 
and  got  himself  crowned  King  at  Aries  in  consequence.      But 
his   main   endeavour    was  to  build  up  a  strong  kingdom  to 
serve  as  a  territorial  basis  for  the  Empire,  which  he  hoped  to 
make  hereditary  in  the   House  of  Luxemburg ;  he  failed  to 
make  the  Empire  hereditary,  but  his  policy  was  later  success- 
fully pursued  by  the  House  of  Habsburg  and  was  essentially 
sound.      He  won  over  the  imperial  cities  to  his  side  by  the 
concession  of  privileges ;  he  won  over  the  House  of  Habsburg 
by    the    marriage    of    his    eldest  son   Rudolf;    he  won    over 
the     House    of    Wittelsbach    by    his     own    marriage    with 
the    daughter   of    the    Elector   Palatine;    he    won    over   the 
House  of  Brandenburg  by  disowning  the  '  false  Waldemar." 
He    attempted    to    make   Bohemia  the    corner-stone    of   the 
Empire,  transferring  the  sovereignty   from   the  west  to  the 
east;  he    founded   the   University  of  Prague,  the  first    uni- 
versity in  Germany,  and  attracted  there  thousands  of  students 
from    all    Christendom.       He    supported    the    claim    of    his 
brother  Wenzel   to  the  Duchies  of    Brabant   and    Limburg 
against  the  pretensions  of  the  Count  of  Flanders  ;  he  secured 
the  succession  to  the  Duchy  of  Brandenburg  and  the  reversion 
of  the  Tirol.     The  great  weakness  of  Germany  was  its  utter 
want  of  political  union  ;  the  princes  had  become  independent; 
the  spiritual  lords  were  '  more  formidable  from  their  posses- 
sions than  those  of  any  other  European   country,  and  enjoyed 
far  larger  privileges';  the  cities  tended  to  become  independent 
republics,    and    were   always   ready   to    make   leagues   among 
themselves   regardless   of  the   imperial   sanction    or   interest. 
Little  was  now  left  of  the  crown  lands ;  the  regalian  rights 
had   been  mostly  seized  or  granted  away  ;  the  Emperor  had 
the  mines  in  Bohemia  and  an   '  inglorious  traffic  in  honours 
and  exemptions'   as  his  main  fiscal  resource.      Yet   with  all 
these   disadvantages   Charles  the   Fourth   made  the   Empire 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  EMPIRE  88 

stronger  and  more  respected,  and  he  succeeded  in  leaving  it 
to  his  eldest  and  dearly  loved  son,  Wenzel.  The  greatest 
achievement  of  his  reign  was  the  Golden  Bull. 

It  was  patent  to  all  that  the  disputed  elections  caused 
continual  disorder,  and  that  one  cause  for  the  disputes  was 
the  uncertainty  as  to  the  rules  of  election.  This  uncertainty 
Charles  rectified  by  the  Golden  Bull.  Although  he  himself 
had  admitted  the  necessity  for  confirmation  of  the  election 
by  the  Pope  before  the  King  of  the  Romans  could  be 
crowned  Emperor  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire,  yet  the  papal 
claims  were  passed  over  in  complete  silence  and  the  electoral 
resolution  of  Reuse  became  the  law  of  the  Empire ;  on  this 
point  the  Pope  showed  his  displeasure,  but  Charles  remained 
firm.  The  number  of  the  Electors  was  to  be  seven.  In  the 
first  place  were  the  three  great  Archbishops  of  the  Rhine : 
the  Archbishop  of  Mainz,  arch-chancellor  of  Germany ;  the 
Archbishop  of  Cologne,  arch-chancellor  of  Italy ;  and  the 
Archbishop  of  Trier,  arch-chancellor  of  Burgundy, — these 
three  represented  the  German  Church.  Then  came  the 
King  of  Bohemia,  cupbearer  of  the  Emperor;  the  Count 
Palatine,  who  was  grand  seneschal ;  the  Duke  of  Saxony, 
who  was  grand  marshal ;  and  the  Markgraf  of  Brandenburg, 
who  was  grand  chamberlain.  The  territories  of  the  Electors 
were  to  be  indivisible,  and  were  to  descend  by  the  law  of 
primogeniture  in  lineal  agnatic  succession.  The  Habsburgs 
and  the  Bavarian  Wittelsbachs  were  weakened  by  the  Bull, 
as  also  were  the  cities,  which  were  forbidden  to  form  confedera- 
tions without  the  permission  of  their  territorial  lords  or  to 
admit  outsiders  to  their  citizenship.  There  were  defects  and 
omissions  in  the  Golden  Bull ;  there  was  little  that  was 
new ;  but  it  crystallised  into  a  constitutional  law  of  the 
Empire  much  that  was  aforetime  in  part  matter  of  custom, 
in  part  matter  of  dispute.  In  transferring  the  balance  of 
power  and  of  civilisation  to  the  east  of  Germany,  Charles 
was  influenced  by  his  desire  to  unite  the  eastern  Slavs  with 
Bohemia  and  to  '  pave  the  way  for  a  union  between  the 
Latin  and  Greek  Churches.'  He  was  harshly  described  by 
Maximilian  the  First  as  'the  father  of  Bohemia,  but  the 
stepfather  of  the  Empire ' ;  but  if  his  first  thought  was  for 

c 


34     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

Bohemia,  he  also  did  his  duty  by  the  Empire.  '  He  had 
none  of  the  romantic  enthusiasm  of  his  father  or  his  grand- 
father, but  he  had  what  was  far  better — a  strong  sense  of 
the  practical  duties  of  government,  and  a  strenuous  business 
capacity  which  enabled  him  to  carry  them  out.  It  is  true 
that  he  failed  to  maintain  the  Ghibeline  cause  in  Italy,  but 
he  preferred  the  more  solid  and  substantial  aim  of  building 
up  a  territorial  monarchy  in  Germany.  He  was  distinguished 
among  contemporary  monarchs  for  his  preference  of  dip- 
lomacy to  force,  for  his  strong  legal  sense  and  his  love  of 
order.  Like  Edward  the  First  of  England  and  Philip  the 
Fourth  of  France,  he  marks  the  transition  from  mediaeval  to 
modern  ideals  and  methods  of  government."'  ^ 

Two  months  before  Charles  died  (1378)  there  commenced 
the  great  Schism  of  the  West. 

^  Lodge,  Close  of  the  Middle  Ages.,  112. 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  CHURCH         35 


CHAPTER    II 

THE    HOLY    ROMAN    CHURCH 
(1)  Its  Popular  Side 

'  The  two  great  ideas  which  expiring  antiquity  bequeathed  to 
the  ages  which  followed,''  says  Mr.  Bryce,  '  were  those  of  a 
World-Monarchy  and  a  World-Religion."'^  These  two  ideas 
were  intimately  connected.  God  had  entrusted  the  care  of 
men's  bodies  to  the  Emperor,  His  vicar  on  earth  in  matters 
temporal ;  and  the  care  of  their  souls  to  the  Pope,  His  vicar 
on  earth  in  matters  spiritual.  The  Holy  Roman  Empire 
and  the  Holy  Roman  Church  thus  represent  two  aspects  of 
the  same  world-wide  coextensive  rule.  In  the  preceding 
chapter  a  brief  survey  of  the  Empire  at  the  time  of  the  com- 
mencement of  the  Great  Schism  has  been  given  ;  and  we 
have  seen  how  it  had  shrunk  and  contracted  until  it  was 
now  merely  the  Romano-Germanic  Empire,  with  hardly  a 
foothold  outside  Germany,  but  with  much  of  the  glamour  of 
the  old  title  still  attaching  to  the  person  and  the  office  of 
the  Emperor.  Up  to  the  time  of  the  Schism  the  Church  had 
preserved  its  title  as  the  world-religion  ;  Christians  everywhere 
were  still  united  in  one  religion  under  one  father,  the  Pope. 

Another  tie  that  bound  all  Christians  together  was  the 
fact  that  in  their  services  and  worship  they  all  used  one 
language — the  language  of  the  Holy  Roman  Church,  which 
she  used  then  and  uses  still  to-day.  Not  only  was  Latin  the 
language  of  the  Church,  it  was  the  language  of  all  educated 
people  throughout  Europe.  The  clergy  everywhere  talked 
Latin  and  wrote  Latin  ;   it  was  the   one  language  of  educa- 

'  Bryce,  90. 


36     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

tion.  At  Paris  or  at  Prague,  at  Oxford  or  at  Bologna,  the 
student  heard  lectures  in  Latin,  took  his  notes  in  Latin,  read 
Latin,  wrote  Latin,  spoke  Latin.  Intei-national  intercourse 
was  immensely  facilitated  by  this  use  of  a  common  tongue. 
A  scholar  went  from  one  university  to  another ;  he  exchanged 
kindly  greetings  with  the  clergy  on  the  way ;  he  was  wel- 
comed at  the  parsonages  and  monasteries ;  the  use  of  the 
lingua  franca  paved  the  way  for  him  everywhere.  And  it 
was  the  outward  mark  of  men's  common  belief;  it  enabled 
the  stranger  to  take  his  part  in  the  church  service  ;  even  the 
peasant  might  learn  his  Pater  Noster  and  Ave  Maria.  The 
nations  grew  up  and  gradually  used  their  national  tongues, 
dropping  the  use  of  Latin  ;  but  the  Church  remained  one 
and  indivisible,  using  the  language  which  had  been  her  own 
from  the  beginning. 

From  the  days  of  the  Ottos  onwards,  the  Papacy  had 
been  growing  in  influence  and  esteem  until  it  reached  its 
zenith  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries.  The  greater 
Popes  had  striven  to  realise  their  high  calling  as  being  set 
in  authority  over  princes  and  kings  who  were  warring  on 
all  sides ;  they  had  kept  themselves  above  the  smoke  and 
stir  of  European  strife  and  warfare ;  they  had  endeavoured 
to  establish  an  authoritative  council  of  unimpassioned  aim 
and  high  morality,  aloof  from  the  selfish  plans  and  lustful 
passions  of  secular  princes.  Such  a  tribunal  was  then  sorely 
wanted,  and  such  a  tribunal  the  Papacy  did  to  some  extent 
supply,  enforcing  its  decrees  by  spiritual  sanctions.  The 
Church  in  the  days  of  her  greatest  glory  had  no  military 
force  to  support  her.  The  years  that  lie  between  the  rise  of 
the  monks  of  Cluni  and  the  coming  of  the  Friars,  the  years 
from  Hildebrand  to  Innocent  the  Third,  form  for  the  Holy 
Roman  Church  an  epoch  of  splendour  and  glory,  an  epoch 
during  which  her  power  over  the  secular  lords  of  the  earth 
was  the  mightiest,  during  which  her  influence  for  good  was 
most  strikingly  exercised.  Her  spiritual  claims  were  justi- 
fied by  the  beneficial  uses  to  which  they  were  applied.  It 
was  not  orthodoxy  alone  that  the  Church  represented ;  it 
asserted  also  the  moral  conscience  of  humanity.  It  waged 
war  not  only  with  heretics   such   as   the  Patarines  and  the 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  CHURCH    37 

Albigenses ;  it  waged  war  also  with  the  tyrant,  the  adulterer, 
the  oppressor.  The  worst  of  our  Plantagenet  kings,  the 
onlv  king  thoroughly  despicable  and  contemptible,  was  John 
Lackland  :  Innocent  the  Third  excommunicated  him.  The 
most  inhuman  and  barbarous  of  Italian  tyrants  was  Eccelino 
da  Romano  :  Alexander  the  Fourth  preached  a  crusade  and 
sent  an  army  against  him.  When  Philip  Augustus  deserted 
his  wife,  Ingeburg  of  Denmark,  for  the  beautiful  Agnes  of 
Meran,  Innocent  the  Third  did  not  hesitate  to  excommunicate 
him.  But  until  the  time  of  this  pontiff  the  Church  had  no 
temporal  power.  '  She  was  strong  only  in  the  moral  force 
which  is  given  by  public  approbation.  Her  voice  Avas 
effectual  only  so  far  as  it  was  re-echoed  by  public  opinion. 
Her  penalties  were  enforced  only  where  their  justice  was 
recognised.  With  all  its  defects  the  Mediaeval  Church 
uttered  the  only  possible  protest  against  the  tyranny  of  an 
unrulv  oligarchy.  .  .  .  The  authority  of  the  Pope  was  a 
useful  refuge  against  the  overweening  power  of  the  King  and 
lords.'  ^  And  if  the  Church  was  thus,  for  the  mighty  ones  of 
the  earth,  a  court  of  equity  and  good  conscience,  a  tribunal 
whose  decrees  were  usually  respected  and  obeyed,  to  the 
people  at  large  she  was  a  haven  of  shelter  and  peace.  In 
the  age  of  feudal  warfare,  an  age  of  unbridled  tumult  and 
ferocity,  the  highest  and  holiest  aspirations  of  all  were  for 
peace  and  rest,  for  quietude  and  order ;  and  it  was  because 
the  Church  offered  a  haven  of  rest  to  the  rich,  a  haven  of 
refuge  to  the  poor,  that  she  obtained  such  a  firm  hold  on 
the  affection  of  the  Middle  Ages.  The  high-born  lord  or 
lady  did  not  disdain  the  shades  of  the  cloister ;  King 
Rudolfs  daughter,  Euphemia,  became  a  nun  ;  his  son-in-law. 
Otto,  became  a  monk.  In  Germany,  where  the  right  of 
private  war  was  universally  exercised,  many  a  warrior,  weary 
of  strife,  must  have  looked  forward  to  end  his  days  in  the 
peaceful  seclusion  of  the  convent  walls — 

'  For  if  heven  be  on  this  erthe  and  ese  to  any  soule, 
It  is  in  cloistere  (says  William  Langland), 
For  in  cloistere  cometh  no  man  to  chide  ue  to  fighte, 
But  all  is  buxomness  there  and  bokes  to  rede  and  to  lerne.* 


^  Creighton,  Historical  Lectures  and  Addresses,  14. 


38       IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

To  the  men  of  low  estate  the  Church  was  their  only  efficient 
protector.  In  dealing  with  the  bulk  of  the  peasantry,  and  to 
some  extent  with  the  townfolk  also,  might  was  right,  and  the 
power  of  the  strongest  was  tempered  only  by  custom.  When 
king  or  lord  oppressed  them,  if  they  could  not  plead  custom 
in  their  favour,  and  sometimes  if  they  could,  they  were  bound 
to  submit ;  the  Church  alone  could  help  them.  While  to 
the  man  of  learning  and  influence  it  opened  a  wide  field  for 
ambition,  to  the  poor  man  of  intellect  it  was  the  only  refuge, 
the  only  home,  in  which  he  could  hope  to  pursue  his  study 
unmolested  and  to  reap  some  reward  of  his  labour.  Eight  at 
least  of  our  own  Archbishops  of  Canterbury,  in  the  thirteenth 
and  fourteenth  centuries,  were  of  humble  parentage.^  The 
Church  was  open  to  all  alike ;  any  man  of  free  birth  could 
become  a  clerk  ;  and  there  are  numberless  instances  in  which 
serfs  paid  fine  to  their  lords  for  permission  to  send  their  sons 
to  school  in  order  that  they  might  be  admitted  to  the  ranks 
of  the  clergy.  Once  admitted  all  were  theoretically  equal ; 
and  although  in  Germany  the  higher  posts  in  the  Church  were 
closed  against  all  who  were  not  of  noble  bii'th,  although  in 
England  there  was  a  prejudice  against  cobblers'  brats 
becoming  priests  and  bishops — 

'  For  shold  no  Clerk  be  crouned  bote  yf  he  ycome  were 
Of  franklens  and  free  men  and  of  folke  yweddede,' 

says  Langland,  still  there  was  a  wide  field  practically  open  to 
merit  and  ability.  The  highest  offices  and  dignities  of  the 
Church  were  open  to  all  the  sacred  orders,  to  every  Christian 
clerk  alike.  Pope  Gregory  the  Seventh  was  the  son  of  a 
carpenter,  Benedict  the  Twelfth  of  a  baker,  Nicholas  the 
Fifth  of  a  poor  doctor,  Celestine  the  Fifth  of  a  peasant, 
Urban  the  Fourth  and  John  the  Twenty-second  of  cobblers, 
Benedict  the  Eleventh  of  a  shepherd,  and  Alexander  the 
Fifth  and  Adrian  the  Fourth  were  beggars.^  In  those  iron 
ages,  when  brutal  force  was  everything,  it  was  surely  much, 
as  M.  Sabatier  has  said,^  that  the  Church  could  point  to 
peasants  and  workmen  receiving  the  humble  homage  of  the 
lords  of  the  earth,  simply  because  they  were  seated  on  the 
chair  of  Saint  Peter  and  represented  the  moral  law.  More- 
^  Cutts,  Parish  Priests,  33.  -  Lea,  i.  3.  ^  Sabalier,  39. 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  CHURCH    39 

over,  the  influence  of  the  Church  over  all  Christian  souls  was 
very  thorough,  very  impressive,  very  far-reaching.  In  those 
days,  when  in  matters  of  faith  all  were  of  one  belief,  when  in 
matters  of  ceremony  all  were  of  one  observance,  the  Church 
breathed  a  spirit  of  common  brotherhood  which  it  is  well- 
nigh  impossible  for  us  nowadays  to  comprehend.  We  have 
no  horror  of  schism  ;  we  live  amid  a  thousand  jarring  sects  ; 
religious  and  political  strife  and  variety  are  to  us  as  the  breath 
of  our  nostrils ;  but  in  the  Middle  Ages  it  was  not  so, 
neither  in  politics  nor  in  religion.  The  men  of  to-day, 
therefore,  find  it  difficult  to  sympathise  with  those  who  lived 
then  ;  '  they  cannot  understand  the  fascination  which  the  idea 
of  one  all-embracing,  all-pervading  church  exercised  upon 
their  mediaeval  forefathers.  A  life  in  the  church,  for  the 
church,  through  the  church  ;  a  life  which  she  blessed  in  Mass 
at  moniing  and  sent  to  peaceful  rest  by  the  vesper  hymn  ;  a 
life  which  she  supported  by  the  constantly  recurring  stimulus 
of  the  sacraments,  relieving  it  by  confession,  purifying  it  by 
penance,  admonishing  it  by  the  presentation  of  visible  objects 
for  contemplation  and  worship — this  was  the  life  which  they 
of  the  Middle  Ages  conceived  of  as  the  rightful  life  for  man  ; 
it  was  the  actual  life  of  many,  the  ideal  of  all.'^  Thus,  in 
the  days  of  its  greatest  splendour  and  glory,  the  influence  of 
the  Holy  Roman  Church  was  beneficent,  and  was  felt  by  all 
to  be  so  ;  '  it  represented  what  people  wanted.  There  never 
was  a  power  which  could  claim  more  entirely  to  rest  upon 
public  opinion  than  could  the  papal  power  at  its  best.' '" 

But  toward  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century  the  papal 
power  was  no  longer  at  its  best.  It  had  formerly  been  a 
purely  spiritual  power,  enforcing  its  decrees  by  spiritual 
sanctions  alone ;  but  since  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth 
century  it  had  altered  its  position,  and  had  become  a  temporal 
power  also,  having  acquired  the  States  of  the  Church.  The 
two  great  world-powers,  the  Empire  and  the  Papacy,  had 
very  little  foixe  of  their  own  to  back  up  and  carry  out  their 
decrees.  They  were  dependent  on  public  opinion,  on  the 
might  of  others.  The  Emperor  might  issue  his  ban,  the 
Pope  might  issue  his  interdict,  but  the  carrying  into  effect  of 
'  Bryce,  417.  ^  Creighton,  of.  cit.  117. 


40     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

these  punishments  depended  on  the  will  of  the  subordinate 
powers  on  the  spot.  The  might  of  the  Empire  rested  on  the 
goodwill  and  obedience  of  its  dignitaries,  just  as  the  might 
of  the  Papacy  rested  on  the  goodwill  and  obedience  of  the 
countries  of  Christendom.  In  proportion  as  the  obedience  of 
its  subordinates  became  more  precarious,  so  each  world-power 
came  to  feel  the  need  for  some  more  constant  and  trustworthy 
support ;  each  Emperor,  Salian  or  Swabian,  Habsburg  or 
Luxemburg,  tried  to  fashion  for  his  family  some  secure 
territorial  basis  on  which  its  permanent  power  might  be 
indefeasibly  grounded.  Just  in  the  same  way,  and  for  the 
same  reason,  did  the  Popes  seek  to  secure  territorial 
sovereignty  by  the  acquisition  of  the  States  of  the  Church. 
This,  however,  necessarily  brought  the  Papacy  down  to  a 
lower  moral  level :  a  Pope  fighting  for  his  own  territorial 
sovereignty  or  aggrandisement  was  a  different  matter,  and  no 
longer  appealed  to  the  imagination  and  sympathy  of  mankind 
as  did  a  Pope  fighting  for  the  higher  policy,  the  liberal  ideas, 
the  moral  aims  of  the  Church.^  In  other  respects  it  may 
have  been  a  matter  of  comparatively  small  moment  at  the 
end  of  the  fourteenth  century  that  the  Papacy  had  become  a 
temporal  power,  although  later,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  in 
the  storm  and  stress  of  the  Reformation,  it  was  the  possession 
of  the  Papal  States  which  probably  saved  the  Papacy  from 
being  reduced  once  again  to  its  original  condition  of  a  mere 
Italian  bishopric.  For  good  and  for  ill  the  Papacy  had  taken 
rank  among  the  temporal  powers  of  Europe,  and  had  its 
temporal  as  well  as  its  spiritual  aims  to  pursue. 

While  it  had  thus  become  a  temporal  power,  the  Church 
had  already  become  the  greatest  landowner  in  Christendom. 
Religion,  which  had  at  first  been  a  question  of  morals  and 
had  then  been  a  question  of  orthodoxy,  had,  from  the  seventh 
century  onwards,  become  in  the  main  a  matter  of  muni- 
ficence to  convents.  The  early  Kings  of  England,  the 
Merovingians  and  the  Carlovingians  in  France,  the  Saxon 
Emperors  in  Germany,  the  Kings  of  Leon,  had  all  been 
prodigal  in  their  gifts  of  land ;  the  abbeys  had  profited  even 
more  than  the  cathedrals.  Men  believed  in  Hell  in  those 
^  Creighton,  i.  25. 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  CHURCH    41 

days,  in  a  Hell  where  the  worm  dieth  not  and  the  fire  is  not 
quenched  ;  and  many  a  dying  man  was  ready  to  secure  a  better 
chance  after  death,  many  a  widow  was  ready  to  improve  the 
fate  of  her  husband,  by  diverting  part  of  his  worldly  wealth 
into  the  coffers  of  the  Church.  Purgatory  was  the  lot  of  all 
true  believers,  and  the  fires  of  Purgatory,  necessary  though 
they  might  be,  were  as  bad  as  the  fires  of  Hell.  But  the 
pains  of  the  dead  could  be  shortened  by  the  prayers  and  good 
works  of  the  living  ;  hence  '  in  all  monasteries,  whenever  any 
one  belonging  to  it  died,  the  death-knell  was  rung,  and 
though  it  were  the  depth  of  night,  no  sooner  had  they  heard 
that  well-known  bell  swinging  forth  slowly  and  sadly  its 
mournful  sounds,  than  all  the  inmates  of  that  house  arose 
and  knelt  down  by  their  bedsides,  or  hurried  to  the  Church, 
and  prayed  for  the  soul  of  the  brother  or  sister  that  moment 
gone.'  ^  Kings  founded  monasteries  for  their  ghostly  weal ; 
cathedi-als  and  parish  churches  pledged  themselves  that  a 
certain  number  of  Psalms  should  be  sung  and  a  certain 
number  of  Masses  be  said  ;  chantries  were  endowed  in 
perpetuity  or  for  a  limited  period  for  the  offering  up  of  the 
Mass  after  the  founder's  death.  Indeed,  so  universal  did  the 
practice  become  of  leaving  a  part  of  one's  goods  to  the  Church, 
that  mere  intestacy  was  regarded  by  the  clergy  as  a  fraud, 
and  the  Bishop  of  Lisbon  and  his  subordinates  in  the  days  of 
Saint  Francis  actually  refused  to  perform  the  funeral  services 
for  any  one  who  had  not  left  one-third  of  his  wealth  to  the 
Church.^ 

But  for  the  fiefs  which  abbeys  paid  to  their  lay  advocates 
for  protection,  and  but  for  the  rapacious  spoliations  to  which 
they  were  subject  at  the  hands  of  brutal  and  unprincipled 
warriors,  it  seemed  as  if  the  Church  would  gradually  engulf 
all  the  lands  of  the  kingdoms  of  Europe.  As  it  was,  the 
proportion  of  lands  held  by  the  Church  was  in  some  countries 
more  than  one-half,  and  in  all  not  less  than  one-third.  The  end 
of  the  twelfth  century  was  the  time  of  most  profuse  liberality  ; 
after  that,  as  the  mendicant  friars  rose  in  favour  and  the 
monks  gradually  lost  their  popularity,  the  tide  of  generosity 
fell    lower   and    lower ;    but   at    the  close  of  the  fourteenth 

^  Rock,  Thi  Church  of  Our  Fathers,  ii.  244.  -  Sabatier,  313. 


42     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

century  the  Church  was  still  the  greatest  landowner  in  every 
country    of    Christendom.       The    wealth    of  the    Church    in 
Germany   was  conspicuously  great.       In    1111,  King  Henry 
the  Fifth  had   proposed  to  the  Pope  to  end  the  strife  about 
investitures  by  taking  from  the  German  prelates  their  landed 
estates,  and  leaving  them   only  their  tithes  and   offerings  ;  ^ 
Paschal  the  Second  had  consented  ;  but  the  German  clergy, 
through  their  primate  the  Archbishop   of  Salzburg,  declared 
that   anything    was    preferable    to    seeing   the   Church    thus 
spoiled  of  her  inheritance.      The  proposal  therefore  came  to 
naught ;  the  prelates  still  continued  to  be  feudal  lords.      The 
three  great  Archbishops  of  the  Rhine  not  only  thus  held  their 
vast  estates,  but  were   ever  on  the   lookout  to  add  to   their 
strength  ;  their   position  as  Electors  of  the  Empire  enabled 
them  at  the  time  of  elections  to  drive  unconscionable  bargains 
with     the    candidates     for    Empire.       Perhaps    the     hardest 
bargains  of  all  were  those  which  the  Archbishops  of  Cologne 
and  Mainz  made  with  Adolf  of  Nassau  and  his  two  successors. 
The  Bishops  also,  almost  universally  throughout  the  Empire, 
donned  coat  of  mail   as  readily  as  cassock  ;   they  were  ever 
ready  to  enlarge  their  sees,  their  privileges,  their  immunities. 
The  position  of  an  exalted  ecclesiastic  was  eagerly  sought  for 
by  the  German   nobles  ;    and   it   was    part  of  the    policy  of 
successive  Emperors  to  prevent  two  of  the  great  archbishoprics 
being  held  by  members  of  the  same  noble  family.     They  were 
not  always  able  to  hinder  such  an  accumulation  of  influence  in 
the  hands  of  a  single  house  :  when  Kuno  of  Falkenstein  was 
Archbishop  of  Trier  in  the  days  of  King  Wenzel,  his  nephew, 
Frederic,  was  Archbishop  of  Cologne.      The  German  prelates 
again,  unlike  those  of  England  and  France,  when  once  they 
were  in  secure  possession  of  their  sees,  frequently  wavered  in 
their  allegiance  to  their  feudal   lord   paramount ;    while  their 
obedience   to    their   spiritual   father,   the   Pope,    was   equally 
precarious    and    uncertain.        Innocent  the    Sixth    failed    to 
procure  any  pecuniai-y  assistance   for   his  wars  in   Italy  from 
the  three  Archbishops  of  the  Rhine  or   from  the  Archbishop 
of  Salzburg.^      When  Pope  Boniface  the  Ninth   granted  two- 
tenths   to   King   Rupert,  he   found   it  impossible  to   levy  the 
1  Hoefler,  4.  "^  Lindner  ^H.  and L.),  ii.  58. 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  CHURCH    43 

tax.      And  the  clergy  of  Germany  were  often  as  refractory  to 
their  bishops  as  were  the  bishops  to  the  Pope. 

Before  noticing  the  state  of  the  Church  at  the  end  of  the 
fourteenth  century,  it  will   be  well   to  form  some  idea  of  its 
extent,  and  of  the  principal  points  in  which   it   differed  from 
the  Church   of  the  present  day.      In  extent,  taking  the  term 
in  its    widest  signification,   the   Church    coincided   with    the 
Empire  :   it   embraced   the   whole   body   of  the   faithful,  the 
whole    Christian    world    considered    on    its    spiritual     side. 
Taken  in  its  narrower  sense,  as  including  the  pastors  and  not 
the   people,  the   Church    still   embraced    the    whole   body   of 
clerks  or  clergy,  practically  the  whole  of  the  population  which 
earned  its  bread  by  its  brains  rather  than  by  the  sweat  of  its 
brow  ;  the  whole  body,  with  some  exceptions,  and  those  chiefly 
in   Italy,  of  what  we   now  call  the   learned   professions.      '  In 
the  iNorth  of  Europe,'  writes  Mr.  Rashdall,^  '  the  Church  was 
simply  a   synonym  for  the   professions.      Nearly  all   the  civil 
servants   of  the   Crown,  the  diplomatists,  the  secretaries   or 
advisers   of    great    nobles,  the    architects,  at   one    time    the 
secular  lawyers,  all    through  the  Middle  Ages  the  then  large 
tribe  of  ecclesiastical  lawyers,  were  ecclesiastics.'     The  distinc- 
tion meant  much,  for  it  corresponded  to  a  cleavage  in  juris- 
diction.     Every  clerk  was   personally  outside   the  jurisdiction 
of    the    secular   courts.      In    every    country    of    Christendom 
alongside  the  secular  courts  were  the  courts  spiritual.      The 
jurisdiction  of  these  courts   extended    to   the   persons  of  all 
clerks,  to  every  one  who  wore  a  tonsure  ;    it  extended  also  to 
all   spiritual   causes,  not  only  to  those  strictly  concerned  with 
matters  of  faith  and   discipline,  but  also  to  all   cases  in  any 
way  connected   with    marriage,   with   church   property,   with 
wills,   or  with   perjury;   it  extended   also   to   crimes   against 
religion,  to  crimes  committed  in   holy  places,  to  violations  of 
the  edicts   against   taking   interest,  and    to    breaches    of  the 
Truce  or  Peace  of  God.      The  spiritual   courts  were   far  more 
popular    than    the    secular    courts ;    the   judges    were    more 
learned,   the    procedure   was    more    reasonable,   justice   more 
easily  obtainable,  and  the   punishments  milder  ;    consequently 
contracts  were  made  binding  by  oath  in  order  that  their  non- 

*  Rashdall,  ii.  696. 


44     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

observance  might  be  treated  as  a  case  of  perjury,  and  laymen 
got  barbers  to  give  them  the  '  clerks'  crown '  in  the  hope  of 
coming  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  spiritual  rather  than  of 
the  secular  court.  The  canon  law  was  everywhere  the  personal 
law  of  the  clerk,  and  it  had  the  advantage  of  being  accom- 
panied by  a  procedure  simpler,  milder,  and  more  rational. 
Whether  there  was  or  was  not  much  to  choose  between  the 
substantive  law  of  the  systems,  the  adjective  law  of  the  one 
was  civilised,  while  that  of  the  other  was  semi-barbarous. 
'  We  have  to  take  ourselves  back  to  a  state  of  society  in 
which  a  judicial  trial  was  a  tournament  and  the  ordeal  an 
approved  substitute  for  evidence,  to  realise  what  civilization 
owes  to  the  Canon  Law  and  their  Canonists  with  their 
elaborate  system  of  written  law,  their  judicial  evidence,  and 
their  written  procedure."  ^  In  those  days,  as  in  the  civil 
courts  now,  a  man  could  not  get  justice  without  paying  for 
it ;  and  the  battle  between  the  rival  jurisdictions  was  to  some 
extent  a  battle  for  fees  and  fines.  Perhaps  the  most 
important  point  in  the  great  share  which  the  Church 
then  took  in  the  purely  judicial  work  of  a  country  was 
that  the  ultimate  appeal  in  all  spiritual  causes  lay  to  the 
Pope. 

'  Religious  life  in  the  Middle  Ages,'  writes  M.  Jusserand,^ 
'  had  not  the  definite  visible  boundaries  which  we  see  to-day  ; 
now  a  man  either  belongs  to  the  Church  or  he  does  not ; 
but  there  was  nothing  so  sharply  cut  then.  Religious  life 
stretched  across  society  like  an  immense  river  without  banks, 
with  numberless  affluents,  with  underground  streams,  impreg- 
nating the  soil  even  where  it  did  not  wash  it.'  '  In  the 
Middle  Ages,'  writes  Mr.  Trevelyan,^  '  the  Church  admin- 
istered whole  sides  of  life  which  have  since  been  put  into  the 
hands  of  the  secular  government  or  left  to  the  discretion  of 
the  individual.'  It  was  necessarily  so  when  all  the  educated 
classes  of  the  country  other  than  those  engaged  in  war,  in 
commerce  and  industry,  were  practically  confined  to  the  ranks 
of  the  clergy.  Wherever  the  services  of  an  educated  man 
were  required,  a  clerk  must  be  taken.     The  clergy  were  in 

»  Rashdall,  i.  143.  "^  V Epopee  Mystique,  86. 

^  England  in  the  Age  of  Wycliffe,  104. 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  CHURCH    45 

request  in  business  houses  as  clerks  and  scriveners,  and  on 
estates  as  stewards  and  accountants.  The  household  of  a 
sreat  noble,  like  John  of  Gaunt,  included  scores  of  their 
number :  his  chancellor  was  the  Bishop  of  Salisbury,  his 
chief  physician  was  Appleton,  a  Franciscan  Friar.  There 
were  numbers  of  clerks  everywhere  in  the  royal  service — 

'Bischopes  and  bachelers  bothe  maistres  and  doctours,  .  .   . 
Some  semen  the  Kyng  and  his  silver  tellen, 
In  cheker  and  in  chancerye  chalengen  his  dettes  .  .  . 
And  some  seruen  as  seruants  lordes  and  laydes. 
And  in  stede  of  stuwardes  sytten  and  demen.' 

The  Roman  Catholic  religion  has  always  maintained  a 
close  hold  on  the  everyday  life  of  its  people ;  but  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  when  the  proportionate  number  of  the  clergy 
was  so  very  much  greater,  there  was  necessarily  much  more 
intimate  friendship  and  intercourse  between  the  lower  ranks 
of  the  clergy  and  the  mass  of  the  people  than  is  possible 
now.  Church  festivals,  and  the  village  rejoicings  connected 
with  them,  were  more  numerous  ;  some  of  those  which  were 
then  of  most  significance,  such  as  the  feast  of  the  Exaltation 
of  the  Holy  Cross  (14th  September),  have  now  lost  their  first 
importance.  In  the  Middle  Ages  a  religious  feast  was  above 
all  else  a  representation,  more  or  less  faithful,  of  some  Bible 
story  or  some  saintly  legend  ;  ^  others  were  of  half-pagan, 
half-religious  origin  ;  but  into  them  all  the  sub-deacons  and 
deacons  entered  with  boyish  glee.  Numerous  are  the  in- 
stances in  which  they  are  reproved  by  their  bishop  or  even 
by  the  Pope  for  leading  the  van  in  some  such  ceremony  which 
tended  to  throw  discredit  on  the  Church,  but  which  was  dear 
to  the  souls  of  the  people  and  to  the  ranks  of  the  lower 
clergy.  A  short  reference  to  some  of  those  feasts  which 
have  now  fallen  more  or  less  into  disuse  will  not  be  out 
of  place. 

^  '  Pour  le  moyen  age,  une  fete  religieuse  etait  avant  tout  une  representation, 
plus  ou  moins  fidele,  du  souvenir  qu'elle  rappelait :  de  la  les  santons  de  la  Pro- 
vence, les  processions  du  Palmesel,  les  cenacles  du  Jeudi  saint,  les  chemins  de 
croix  du  Vendredi  saint,  le  drame  de  la  Resurrection  le  jour  de  Paques,  et  les 
etoupes  enflammees  de  la  Pentecote.' — Sabatier,  327. 


46     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

In  the  first  half  of  the  fourteenth  century,  when  the 
peasantry  everywhere  were  prosperous,  there  was  much  jollity 
and  happiness  in  their  lives,  so  long  as  the  piping  days  of 
peace  were  on,  for  all  religiously  took  part,  and  the  children 
often  took  a  special  part  of  their  own,  in  the  round  of 
festivals  which  marked  the  course  of  the  year.  Some  of 
these  merry  observances  have  altogether  disappeared,  others 
have  fallen  more  or  less  into  disuse  and  forgetfulness.  The 
'  Liberty  of  December '  was  in  France  and  other  countries  a 
time  of  universal  feasting  and  merriment,  of  dance  and  song. 
Then  were  held  the  Feast  of  Fools,  derived  from  the  old 
heathen  festival  of  the  Kalends  of  January ;  and  the  Feast  of 
Asses,  in  which  '  little  brother  Francis '  took  such  innocent 
delight.  At  the  Feast  of  Fools,  songs  not  the  most  decorous 
were  sung ;  men  dressed  up  as  old  women,  or  as  calves  or 
stags,  bishops  and  archbishops,  joined  in  the  Christmas  games 
in  the  monasteries ;  a  Pope  of  Fools  and  two  cardinals  were 
elected  and  endued  with  the  sacred  robes,  the  matins  were 
travestied ;  they  danced  in  the  choir,  they  diced  on  the 
church-floor.  This  feast,  which  was  sometimes  called  the 
Feast  of  the  Sub-deacons,  was  held  on  the  Day  of  the  Cir- 
cumcision.^ The  Feast  of  the  Ass  was  originally  held  on 
Christmas  Day.  In  this  also  masks  predominated  :  Jews  and 
Gentiles,  Moses,  Aaron,  and  the  Prophets,  Vergil  and  Nebu- 
chadnezzar, but  the  most  popular  figure  was  Balaam  on  his 
Ass.  Nebuchadnezzar  delivered  over  the  three  children  to 
be  burned  in  a  fire  made  of  tow  and  linen  in  the  nave  of  the 
church.  Balaam  was  met  by  a  young  man  with  a  drawn 
sword  ;  a  man  under  the  donkey  called  out  *  Cur  me  calca- 
ribus  miseram  sic  laeditis  ? '  and  the  angel  bade  Balaam 
'  Desine  Regis  Balac  praeceptum  perficere.'  In  the  diocese  of 
Beauvais  the  feast  was  held  on  the  14th  January.  The 
finest  donkey  that  could  be  found  was  led  in  procession 
through  the  town,  superbly  caparisoned  ;  a  young  girl,  richly 
dressed,  with  a  child  in  her  arms,  was  seated  on  it,  to 
symbolise  the  Flight  into  Egypt ;  they  were  met  by  the  clergy 
and  conducted  to  the  door  of  the  church  or  cathedral,  and 

*  Du  Cange,  Glossarium  Manuale,  iv.  298 ;  La  Croix,  Sciences  et  Lettres  au 
Moyen  Age,  266;  Maitland,  The  Dark  Ages,  156. 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  CHURCH    47 

High  ]Mass  was  said  with  great  pomp.  A  Latin  hymn  was 
sung  to  announce  the  object  of  the  festival — 

'  To-day  is  the  day  of  gladness, 
Away  all  thoughts  of  sadness. 

Envy  and  grandeur  away  ; 
We  will  rejoice  with  heart  and  voice 
For  we  keep  the  Ass's  Feast  to-day.' 

The  donkey  was  then  led  to  the  high  altar,  having  been 
taught  to  kneel  at  the  proper  place,  and  the  precentor 
chanted  a  Latin  refrain — 

'  Orientibus  partibus, 
Adventavit  Asinus, 
Pulcher  et  fortissimus, 
Sarcinis  aptissimus, 

Hee  haw  !    Sir  Ass  !     Hee  haw  ! 

Hie  in  collibus  Sicheu, 
Enutritus  sub  Ruben, 
Transiit  per  Jordanem, 
Saliit  in  Bethleem, 

Hee  haw  !     Sir  Ass  !     Hee  haw  !  ' 

Then  the  whole  congregation  joined  in  the  chorus,  very  likely 
the  ass  himself  taking  up  the  refrain — 

'  Hee  haw  !  Sir  Ass  !  Hee  haw  ! ' 
*  When  the  ceremony  was  ended,  the  priest,  instead  of  the 
usual  words  with  which  he  dismissed  the  people,  brayed  three 
times  like  an  ass,  and  the  people,  instead  of  the  usual 
response,  "  We  bless  the  Lord,"  brayed  three  times  in  the 
same  manner.'  ^ 

The  Feast  of  the  Ass  has  now  entirely  disappeared,  and  of 
the  Feast  of  Fools  nothing  but  the  Christmas-boxes  and  the 
holly  and  ivy  at  Yule  Tide  now  remain.  The  Christmas 
rejoicings  in  German  villages  nowadays  retain  but  a  faint 
reminiscence  of  the  time  when  festivities  began  three  days 
before  Christmas  with  the  children  going  round  from  house 
to  house,  singing  and  telling  the  glad  tidings  of  the  coming 
birth  of  Our  Lord,  when  the  festivities  continued  day  after 
day,  each  with  its  appropriate  festival,  over  Saint  Stephen's 
Day,  over  the  Dav  of  Saint  John  the  Evangelist,  until  on  the 

1  Du  Change,  op.   cit.  iii.  523  ;  Robertson,    Charles  the  Fifth,   i.    205  ;  La 
Croix,  op.  cit.  266  ;  Majtland,  op,  cit.  \i,2.  et  seq. 


48     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

Day  of  the  Holy  Innocents  a  troop  of  mock  devils  scampered 
through  the  streets  on  the  lookout  for  any  pretty  child  or 
maiden.  On  New  Year's  Eve  boys  sang  in  the  streets,  ring- 
ing bells  and  making  merry  all  through  the  night,  and  collect- 
ing much  money  withal ;  and  on  New  Year's  Day  presents 
were  given  to  the  female  members  of  the  family  and  to  the 
women  servants  and  their  children.  During  the  twelve  days 
between  Christmas  and  Epiphany  the  houses  were  fumigated 
to  scare  away  evil  spirits,  and  the  weather  was  carefully 
noted  as  prognosticating  that  for  the  coming  twelve  months.^ 
The  rejoicings  peculiar  to  Christmas  came  to  an  end  at 
Epiphany,  when  the  Feast  of  the  Three  Kings  was  kept  with 
great  merriment  throughout  Germany :  every  house  chose  its 
king  by  a  pfennig  dropped  in  the  honey-cake  after  the 
manner  of  the  coins  and  thimbles  dropped  into  our  plum- 
puddings  ;  a  bean-feast  was  held  at  which  every  one  drank 
his  fill  at  the  expense  of  the  king  of  the  feast ;  the  school- 
boys carried  lights  to  ward  off  misfortune  of  Saint  Blasius's 
Day.  Another  incident  peculiar  to  our  own  Christmas  was 
then  observed  on  Saint  Nicolas's  Day  (December  6th),  before 
which  the  children  used  to  invoke  the  Saint's  favour  by  fast- 
ing so  rigorously  that  their  parents  were  often  afraid  lest 
they  should  do  themselves  an  injury  ;  for  it  was  Saint  Nicolas, 
our  own  Santa  Klaus,  who  put  presents  into  their  little  shoes. 
On  this  same  day,  too,  was  selected  the  Boy-Bishop,  who 
donned  cope  and  mitre  and  collected  his  revenues  until  he 
preached  his  sermon  and  gave  up  his  crozier  at  the  Feast  of 
Holy  Innocents. 

It  was  but  natural  that  the  times  of  chief  observance 
should  be  those  of  Our  Lord's  birth  and  of  His  death  and 
resurrection ;  but  there  were  many  other  seasons  of  joy 
and  mirth  through  the  year.  Of  these  the  principal  was 
the  Carnival,  just  before  Lent.  Italy  was  then,  as  now, 
celebrated  for  the  gorgeous  pageantry  of  its  processions ; 
Germany  was  satisfied  with  an  occasional  sledge  or  a  '  ship  of 
fools,'  but  there  was  no  end  to  the  masking  and  mumming. 
Men  dressed  as  women,  women  as  men  ;  some  disguised  them- 
selves with  red  lead  and  ink  as  satyrs  or  devils ;  every  one 
^  Schultz,  Deutsches  Leben  im  xiv.  und  xv,  Jahrhundert  (1S92),  272  et  seq. 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  CHURCH    49 

sought  to  invent  some  new  device  ;   they  feasted,  they  drank, 
they  danced,  they  held   long  processions,  they   bantered   the 
girls  ;  they  played  the  good  old  game  of  the  Blind  Men  and 
the    Pig.      Twelve    blind    men,    well    primed   with    food  and 
drink,  were  introduced,  armed   in   old   armour,  with  helmets 
awry  and   cudgels  in   their  hands,  into  an   enclosure,   and  a 
sturdv  pig  was  let  loose  among  them  ;  they  tned  to  belabour 
the    pig,   which    rushed   hither    and    thither,   knocking  them 
down   and  causing  universal   confusion  ;   then  a  bell  was  put 
round   its  neck,  and   finally   the  porker,   more  tired  out  by 
heat    and    exertion    than   by    the    blows,    was    captured    and 
killed.       In    some   parts    of    Swabia   on    Ash    Wednesday  a 
harrow  was  dragged  through  the  Danube  by  the  young  men 
and  maidens.     In  Franconia  the  girls  were  yoked  to  a  plough 
by  their  swains,  and  a  piper  drove  the  team  into  the  river,  to 
give  them  a  salutary  ducking  for  their  levity  during  Carnival. 
At  Whitsuntide  in  Germany  the  custom,  observed  during  the 
Rogation  Days  in  England,  was  kept  up  ;  a  procession,  sing- 
ing the  Litany,  started  from  the  church  and  proceeded  round 
the  fields,  the  priest  carrying  the  Host  in  front   and  praying 
to  God  to  ward  off'  all  danger  from  the  crops.      In  England  a 
dragon  with  a  formidable  tail  was  carried  the  first  two   days 
in  front  of  the  procession,  and  on  the  third   day,  without  its 
tail,  in  the  rear.      The  eve  of  Saint  John  the  Baptist's  Day 
was  an  occasion  for  bonfires,  for  singing  and  dancing ;  young 
men  and  maidens  crowned  their  heads  with  mugwort  and  ver- 
bena, and  carried  larkspur  in  their  hands  ;   pines  were  brought 
from  the  forest  and  planted  in  the  village  gi'een  ;  the  girls 
procured  clay  vessels,  full  of  holes,  filled  them  with  rose-leaves, 
put  a  light  in  them,  and  hung  them  at  their  gables.      On 
Corpus  Christi  Dav  there  was  another  procession  of  the  Host, 
and  mummery  almost  amounting  to  a  miracle-play,  in  which 
devils  and  saints,  male  and  female,  took  part,  and  the  streets 
were  strewn  with  roses  and  hung  with  may-blossom  ;  the  whole 
concluding  with  a  procession  round  the  corn-fields,  headed  by 
the  priest,  who  sang  the  gospel  over  the  new  corn.      On  the 
Day  of  Saint  Vitus  hens  were  offered  to  ward  off"  cramps  and 
poison  ;  on  the  Day  of  Our  Lady's  Ascension,  fruits  and  herbs 
to  keep  away  sickness  and  plague  ;   on  Saint  Martin's  Day  it 

D 


50       IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

was  the  custom  to  eat  a  goose.  There  were  special  observ- 
ances connected  with  the  vintage.  On  Saint  Urban's  Day 
(May  25th)  the  growers  set  a  table  in  the  market-place, 
adorning  it  with  leaves  and  sweet-smelling  herbs  and  putting 
a  small  statue  of  the  Pope  thereon.  The  weather  on  this  day 
was  taken  as  a  prognostic  of  the  coming  summer  :  if  it  was 
fine,  the  statue  was  crowned  with  leaves  and  obeisance  done  to 
it ;  but  if  it  was  rainy,  it  was  bedaubed  with  mud  and  soused 
with  water.  Then,  when  the  grapes  were  ready,  not  a  hus- 
bandman thought  of  beginning  his  picking  until  he  had  been 
authorised  by  the  lord  of  the  tithe,  and  due  provision  had 
been  made  for  the  collection  of  God's  tenth  of  the  produce  ; 
the  grapes  then  were  picked,  and  finally  the  children  came 
with  their  torches  to  cleanse  the  fields  and  burn  out  the  old 
harvest.  Every  one  was  expected  to  taste  the  new  wine — even 
the  poor  had  their  share.  When  the  agricultural  operations 
of  the  year  were  thus  connected  with  religious  observances, 
when  Church  festivals  constantly  recurring  called  for  the 
participation  of  all  the  villagers,  when  the  social  and  political 
life  of  the  town  or  village  centred  in  the  Church,  when  there 
was  one  form  of  devotion  for  all  alike,  when  every  man 
attended  the  Church  to  which  he  belonged  and  was  restricted 
to  that  Church,  it  is  evident  that  the  Church  must  have  been 
much  more  constantly  before  men's  minds  and  in  their  hearts, 
that  it  must  have  been  much  more  intimately  bound  up  with 
their  daily  lives,  that  its  welfare  must  have  formed  a  much 
more  important  consideration  to  them  and  have  meant  much 
more  to  them  in  the  Middle  Ages  than  it  does  to-day. 

The  Church  was  emphatically  the  Schoolmaster  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  During  the  Dark  Ages,  from  the  time  of 
Charles  the  Great  to  the  eleventh  century,  education  was  in  the 
hands  of  the  Benedictine  monks,  and  every  famous  monastery 
had  two  schools,  one  claustral,  for  the  young  religious,  and 
the  other  for  outsiders.  Then  came  the  dawn  of  a  brighter 
time.  Not  only  every  abbey,  but  every  cathedral  also,  and 
many  of  the  larger  churches,  had  each  its  own  school.  The 
famous  cloisters  of  France,  before  the  rise  of  the  University 
of  Paris,  were  frequented  by  scholars  from  Germany,  Den- 
mark, Italy,  and  England  ;  the  University  itself  sprang  from 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  CHURCH    51 

the  Cathedral  School  of  Paris.  The  smaller  schools  taught 
only  reading,  writing,  and  a  little  singing  ;  song-schools  were 
attached  to  every  cathedral  for  the  instruction  of  the  choris- 
ters. The  aim  of  instruction  for  the  lower  ranks  of  the  clergy 
was  to  enable  them  to  read  the  Bible  and  the  Fathers,  and  to 
meditate  thereon.  But  education  at  the  larger,  or  Latin, 
schools  was  more  ambitious  ;  the  course,  which  might  in  these 
days  be  termed  the  first  and  the  second  Arts  course,  was 
then  known  as  the  Trivium  and  the  Quadrivium.  The  Tri- 
vium  comprised  grammar,  rhetoric,  and  logic  ;  the  Quadri- 
vium comprised  arithmetic  and  astronomy,  necessary  to  the 
clergy  for  the  determination  of  Easter,  music,  '  a  half-mystical 
doctrine  of  numbers  and  the  rules  of  plain-song,'  and  geometry, 
'  a  selection  of  propositions  from  Euclid  without  the  demon- 
strations.' Grammar  included  the  study  of  the  classics ; 
under  rhetoric  certain  treatises  of  Cicero  were  largely  read  ; 
'but  the  heart  and  centre  of  the  secular  education  of  the 
time  in  Northern  Europe  was  the  study  of  dialectic  or  logic,' 
the  science  of  right  reasoning,  which  took  a  wide  range  and 
introduced  the  student  to  the  ever-engrossing  controversy 
between  the  Realists  and  the  Nominalists.  After  the  days  of 
Ansel m  the  monasteries  began  to  close  their  doors  to  lay 
students,  and  to  provide  for  their  own  people  alone  ;  the  care 
for  education  was  transferred  from  the  regular  to  the  secular 
clergy,  a  change  which  was  helped  by  the  advent  of  the  friars 
and  by  the  rise  of  the  universities ;  although  even  in  the  first 
half  of  the  fourteenth  century  every  son  of  the  soil  in  France, 
who  made  his  way  to  name  and  fame,  had  received  his  early 
education  at  some  monastic  school.  The  cathedrals  and 
churches  took  up  the  work  which  the  monks,  in  their  selfish- 
ness, were  dropping ;  the  chancellor  of  a  cathedral  was  re- 
sponsible for  the  appointment  of  the  schoolmaster  and  for  the 
regulation  of  the  studies.  Priests  were  enjoined  to  establish 
schools  for  gratuitous  instruction  in  the  villages ;  in  these  the 
children  learned  their  catechism,  reading,  writing,  a  little 
arithmetic  and  grammar  ;  such  schools  were  in  England  often 
held  by  chantry  priests.  In  this  way,  up  to  the  end  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  the  education  of  the  people,  save  in  Italy, 
remained  almost  entirely  in   the  hands  of   the  clergy  ;  boys 


52     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

were  sent  to  school,  girls  were  sent  to  a  nunnery,  or  had 
private  teachers.  In  Italy,  however,  although  church  schools 
existed,  the  old  race  of  lay  teachers  never  died  out,  even  in 
the  Dark  Ages,  and  when  the  revival  came,  its  effects  were 
most  conspicuous  in  the  schools  of  the  independent  lay 
teachers.  In  Germany  and  Holland  also,  during  the  four- 
teenth century,  lay  masters  established  schools  in  many  of  the 
cities,  where  the  demand  of  the  merchants  and  artisans  for 
education  was  greatest.  But  with  such  occasional  exceptions 
the  Church  did  the  whole  work  of  education. 

If  the  Church  was  the  Schoolmaster  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
she  was,  for  the  great  majority  of  the  population,  the  Physician 
also,  although  in  this  good  work  they  had  for  rivals  the  Jew  and 
Arab  physicians  at  one  end  of  the  profession  and  the  barber- 
surgeons  at  the  other.  From  the  fourth  century  onward  the 
Church  had  taught  and  practised  the  art  of  healing  :  when 
the  temples  of  JEsculapius,  Hygeia,  and  Serapis  were  closed, 
Christianity  opened  its  churches  and  monasteries  to  the  sick. 
The  monks  possessed  a  large  number  of  traditional  recipes ; 
they  made  use  of  medicinal  herbs  for  wounds  and  bruises. 
The  competition  with  the  Arabs  and  Jews  compelled  them  to 
further  study  ;  they  travelled  to  acquire  practice  and  know- 
ledge ;  they  accompanied  crusades  and  armies  as  doctors. 
Hospitals  were  attached  to  the  monasteries  and  large 
churches  ;  hospitallers,  brothers  and  sisters,  were  trained  to 
tend  the  sick  ;  a  code  of  hygiene  was  formed.  The  Emperor 
Henry  the  Second  went  to  the  monastery  of  Monte  Casino  to 
be  treated  for  stone.  The  eleventh  century  had  seen  a  large 
increase  in  the  number  of  hospitals  and  lazar-houses  ;  it  had 
also  seen  the  rise  of  different  orders  devoting  themselves  to 
special  diseases  :  the  Brothers  of  Saint  Antony  applied  them- 
selves to  bowel  complaints  and  cases  of  dysentery  ;  the  Knights 
of  Saint  John  and  the  Brethren  of  the  Holy  Spirit  treated 
especially  those  who  had  fallen  victims  to  pestilential  epi- 
demics ;  the  Brethren  of  Saint  Lazarus  held  sovereign  specifics 
against  small-pox  and  leprosy ;  the  Templars  tended  warriors, 
pilgrims,  and  travellers  suffering  from  ophthalmia,  scurvy, 
or  dangerous  wounds.  Surgeons,  trained  in  the  monastic 
schools,   were    engaged    in  the  Low   Countries,  in  Italy   and 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  CHURCH    53 

Germany,  by  the  richer  and  larger  towns  for  the  service  of 
charity.  In  France,  in  the  thirteenth  century,  it  was  no 
longer  necessary  for  a  student  of  medicine  or  surgery  to  be  a 
clerk  ;  the  profession  was  opened,  and  the  minor  surgery  fell 
into  the  hands  of  the  barber-surgeons.  The  barbers  gradually 
usurped  the  functions  which  had  previously  been  reserved  to 
the  clergy,  and  at  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century  there 
were  three  recognised  orders  of  practitioners  in  France ;  the 
physicians  '  of  the  long  robe,'  the  surgeons  '  of  the  short 
robe,"  and  the  barbers  ;  and  the  latter  were  allowed  to  wear 
swords,  and  Avere  excused  all  duty  on  the  night-watch.  The 
medical  schools  of  Montpellier  and  Paris  were  by  this  time 
formidable  rivals  of  Salerno  and  Bologna  ;  France  and  Italy 
were  far  ahead  of  Germany  and  England  in  medical  science. 
John  of  Bohemia  was  so  unskilfully  treated  that  he  flung  his 
physician  into  the  river  Oder,  being  righteously  determined 
that  he  should  do  no  further  harm  to  any  man.  Sigismund 
of  Hunsarv,  like  Albert  of  Austria  and  Wenzel  of  Bohemia 
before  him,  and  like  another  Albert  of  Austria  his  contem- 
porary, was  hung  by  the  heels  for  twenty-four  hours  to  allow 
poison  to  trickle  out  of  him  ;  Edward  the  Third  of  England, 
when  a  boy,  was  wrapped  in  red  cloth  to  cure  small-pox ;  and 
the  court  physician  who  treated  him  prescribed  an  ointment 
made  of  crickets,  beetles,  and  common  oil  to  cure  the  stone. 
Another  recipe  for  the  same  complaint  was  to  take  gromel, 
parsley,  red  nettle,  violets,  incense,  and  cherry-stone  kernels, 
to  bray  them  together  and  to  mix  them  with  stale  ale  as  a 
healing  draught.  A  third  method  of  dissolving  stone  was  to 
take  the  white  stones  from  the  maw  of  a  cock  twelve  months 
old,  to  bray  them  in  a  mortar  with  an  iron  pestle,  and  to  mix 
them  with  wine.  Some  of  the  recipes  were  harmless  enough, 
and  perhaps  not  the  less  efficacious  :  sore  throats  were  steamed 
with  boiling  cinquefoil  water ;  excessive  sweating  was  cured 
by  binding  linseed  and  lettuce,  stamped  well  together,  on  the 
stomach  ;  while  a  sufferer  from  tertian  ague  was  directed  to 
eat  a  hot  barley-cake  and  to  drink  copiously  of  good  wine 
when  the  fit  was  coming  on,  then  to  drink  a  decoction  made 
of  plantains  brayed  in  wine  and  water,  and  to  compose  him- 
self to  sleep.      A  hare's  gall  in  pottage  would  make  a  man 


54     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

sleep  for   three  days;    southernwood   brayed  in   wine  would 
stop  him  from  talking  in  his  sleep  ;   violet-water  would  cure 
his  broken  bones ;  centaury  brayed  and  mixed  with  wine  and 
water  would  cure  snake- bite  ;   while  goats'  claws   burned  to 
powder  in  a  new  pot  and  eaten  with  pottage  were  a  sovereign 
remedy  against  incontinence  of  urine.      Some  of  their  recipes 
were    sufficiently    fanciful  :     barley-bread    and    mustard-soup 
eaten  with  sage  fasting,  were  prescribed  for  palsy  ;  aloes  and 
opium,  brayed  and  mixed  with  the  milk  of  a  woman  who  was 
suckling  a  man  child,  formed  an  ointment  for  blindness ;  pig's 
fat,  hen's  fat,  white  of  an  egg,  and  darnel    meal    were    the 
ingredients  for  an  ointment  for  white  faces  ;  and  any  one  who 
had  red  eyes  was  recommended  to  take  a  large  red  snail,  to 
prick  his  back  all  over  and  rub   salt  in,  to  catch   the  liquor 
which  exuded,  and  to  use  it  as  a  salve.      Those  who  suffered 
from  worms  were  instructed  to  make  a  candle  of  virgin  wax, 
with   which  henbane,  wild  celery,  and    pimpernel    had  been 
mixed,  to  light  the  candle  and  hold  it  in  the  mouth  until  the 
teeth  got  hot,  when  the  worms  would  surely  drop   out.      A 
costive  man  had  a  parlous  time :  mallows  and  mercury  were 
seethed  under  a  gobbet  of  pork,  and  he  was  required  to  eat 
the  pottage  made  thereof,  and  to  drink  therewith  white  wine 
or  whey,  '  and  he  shall  be  soluble.'  ^      The  foregoing  examples 
give  some  idea  of  the  state  of  medical   science  and  skill  in 
England  at  this  time.     Chaucer's  Doctour  of  Physick,  « a  very 
parfit  practisour,'  clad  in  sangwin  and  in  pers,  worked  by  the 
rules  of  natural  magic  and  astrology.      It  was  to  the  careful 
tending    and    patient   nursing    that   they    bestowed,  to   the 
hygienic  treatment  and  simple  drugs  and  herbs  which  they 
used,  that   the   monks   owed   most   of   their  success   in   the 
science  of  medicine. 

Thus  far  we  have  noticed  the  Church  of  the  Middle  Ages 
only  in  some  of  its  wider  aspects  ;  we  have  seen  how  largely 
it  bulked  on  the  horizon,  how  intimately  it  was  connected  in 
various  ways  with  the  life  and  welfare  of  the  people.  But 
we  have  not  yet  considered  the  different  orders,  secular  and 
reo-ular,  of  which  it  was  composed,  nor  the  abuses  which  had 
gradually  risen  in  its  midst,  impairing  its  efficiency,  and 
1  Henslow,  Medical  Works  of  the  Fourteenth  Century,  passim. 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  CHURCH    55 

arousing  a  widespread  feeling  of  unrest  in  the  minds  of  its 
most  earnest  followers.  They  recognised  that  the  clergy 
were  the  salt  of  the  earth  ;  but  if  the  salt  were  to  lose  its 
savour,  wherewith  should  the  world  be  salted  ? 

(2)  Seculars  and  Regulars 

We  have  glanced  at  the  position  of  the  Holy  Roman 
Empire  at  the  commencement  of  the  Great  Schism  of  the 
West ;  we  have  now  to  consider  the  state  of  the  secular  and 
regular  orders  in  the  Holy  Roman  Church  at  the  same  time. 

The  most  glorious  years  of  the  Papacy  extended,  as  has 
been  said,  from  the  days  of  Hildebrand  to  the  pontificate  of 
Innocent  the  Third,  These  mighty  pontiffs  endeavoured  to 
establish  the  Church  in  the  beauty  of  holiness,  to  make  it  a 
guide  and  exemplar  to  all,  a  centre  of  purity  bringing  peace 
and  healing  on  its  wings ;  they  sought  to  bring  all  the 
kingdoms  of  the  world  in  subjection  to  themselves  in  order 
thereby  to  induce  a  universal  reign  of  holiness.  But  they 
had  aimed  too  high  ;  they  had  not  made  sufficient  allowance 
for  the  frailty  of  human  nature.  They  were  able  almost 
everywhere  to  enforce  a  nominal  rule  of  celibacy  on  the 
clergy,  but  they  were  unable  to  procure  their  chastity  ;  it 
was  celibacy  tempered  with  concubinage  ;  it  was  a  common 
thing  for  the  priest  to  pay  to  his  bishop  the  tribute 
known  as  cullagium  to  be  allowed  to  keep  his  concubine 
in  peace.^  The  Pope  was  rightly  the  supreme  judge  in 
matters  of  faith  and  doctrine,  but  in  matters  of  discipline 
they  had  centralised  too  strictly.  They  had  rendered  the 
bishops  so  subservient,  that  they  had  lost  all  respect  and 
authority  in  their  own  dioceses  ;  the  abbots  also  would  decide 
nothing  for  themselves.  The  veriest  trifles  of  discipline  were 
submitted  to  Innocent  the  Third  for  decision :  points  of 
grammar,  the  correct  attitude  in  the  choir,  the  refectory,  the 
dormitory,  the  shape  and  size  of  a  bed  coverlet — all  such 
matters  the  Pope  willingly  took  upon  himself  to  consider  and 
decide.^  The  Popes,  moreover,  collated  to  all  the  more 
important  benefices,  and  decided  all  cases  of  contested  elections. 
Finally,  when  Innocent  acquired  the  States  of  the  Church, 
^  Lea,  i.  21.  2  Rocquain,  169. 


56     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

the  work  of  practical  government  also  fell  to  be  executed  ; 
but  this  very  acquisition,  while  it  marked  the  summit  of 
Papal  influence,  marked  also  the  commencement  of  its 
decline.  A  firm  territorial  basis  might  be  advantageous  or 
even  necessary  for  the  Papacy  ;  but  a  Pope  fighting  for  his 
temporal  possessions  no  longer  appealed  to  men's  sympathies 
as  he  did  when,  in  the  days  of  feudal  oppression,  he  had 
fought  for  his  purely  spiritual  dignity  and  importance. 

The  thirteenth  century,  from  the  days  of  Innocent  the  Third 
to  those  of  Boniface  the  Eighth,  has  been  styled  the  noonday 
of  papal  dominion,  the  century  during  which  Rome  inspired 
all  the  terror  of  her  ancient  name,  during  which  she  was  once 
more  mistress  of  the  world  and  kings  were  her  vassals.^  It 
was  in  many  ways  the  most  wonderful  time  since  the  birth 
of  Christ :  the  world  had  renewed  its  youth  ;  there  was  a  re- 
naissance of  learning  and  intellect  which  has  made  many 
wonder  why  the  Protestant  Reformation  did  not  come  three 
hundred  years  earlier  than  it  actually  did.^  It  was  an  epoch 
of  '  great  sovereigns,  great  statesmen,  great  lawyers,  great 
men  of  science,  great  philosophers  and  divines,  great  architects, 
great  poets  and  painters.'  ^  It  was  a  century  marked  by  a 
decline  in  the  spiritual  efficacy,  but  by  an  increase  in  the 
temporal  pretensions  of  the  Papacy  ;  never  had  any  Pope  set 
these  so  high  as  did  Benedict  Gaetani  when  he  became  Pope 
Boniface  the  Eighth.  But  the  glorious  promise  of  the 
thirteenth  century  was  not  fulfilled  ;  the  renaissance  came  to 
naught ;  no  summer  followed  the  wonderful  spring ;  instead 
thereof,  a  winter  of  corruption  and  decay  set  in.  '  Persecu- 
tion, bribery  (in  the  shape  of  patronage),  the  natural  tendency 
of  any  unusual  stimulation  of  intellectual  activity  to  wear 
itself  out,  and  above  all  the  genius  of  the  great  orthodox 
Schoolmen,  prevailed.'  It  was  the  theological  dictatorship 
of  the  cosmopolitan  University  of  Paris  which  more  than 
all  else  blasted  the  fair  prospects  of  the  twelfth-century 
illumination,  though  at  the  same  time  it  saved  Northern 
France  from  the  ravages  of  the  Holy  Inquisition.*  The 
University  of  Paris  aspired  to  a  theological   dictatorship,  and 

^  Hallani,  ii.  202.  ^  Renan,  301. 

^  Lightfoot's  Essays,  94.  *  Rashdall,  i.  526. 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  CHURCH    57 

hence  ran  counter  to  the  Popes.  For  the  Popes  were  not 
theologians ;  they  were  canon  lawyers ;  they  had  all  the 
lawyer's  desire  to  stand  on  the  ancient  ways,  they  had  all  the 
lawyer's  dislike  for  radical  reform.  Clement  the  Fifth  openly 
professed  his  contempt  for  the  theologians  of  Paris.  Jean 
Gerson,  on  the  other  hand,  who  tried  to  arrogate  to  the 
Theological  Faculty  the  control  of  negotiations  during  the 
Great  Schism,  was  never  tired  of  reiterating  that  the  Canon 
Law  must  give  way,  when  occasion  demanded,  to  the  Divine 
Law  and  the  welfare  of  Holy  Church.  From  their  education 
and  training  the  influence  of  the  Popes  was  averse  from  all 
radical  reform  of  the  Church  and  its  members.  The  close  of 
the  thirteenth  century  was  marked  by  a  fearful  catastrophe 
for  the  Church.  The  Popes  had  come  victorious  out  of  their 
strife  with  the  Hohenstaufen ;  they  were  worsted  in  their 
strife  with  France.  Boniface  fell  before  Philip;  he  died 
very  shortly  after  the  sacrilegious  outrage  at  Agnani. 

An  immense  change  was  marked  by  the  transfer  of  the 
Papacy  to  Avignon.  It  wrought  woe  in  many  ways.  It 
wrought  woe  to  the  Papacy  itself,  inasmuch  as  it  deprived 
the  Pope  of  the  consideration  and  respect  which  he  had 
hitherto  enjoyed  as  the  impartial,  international  arbitrator, 
the  supreme  head  of  Christendom,  the  common  Father  of 
all  nations.  It  wrought  woe  to  both  England  and  France, 
inasmuch  as  it  rendered  futile  all  the  efforts  of  Benedict  the 
Twelfth  to  avert  the  Hundred  Years'  War,  a  conflict  which 
wasted  the  resources  though  it  increased  the  glory  of 
England,  which  brought  incalculable  desolation  and  misery 
on  the  fair  realm  of  France.  It  wrought  woe  to  Germany, 
inasmuch  as  there  ensued  the  long  strife  between  Louis  of 
Bavaria  and  the  Popes,  which  brought  with  it  the  revolt 
of  the  Franciscan  Friars  and  the  consequent  alienation  of 
much  of  the  German  peasantry.  It  wrought  woe  also 
to  Italy,  which  lapsed  into  anarchy  as  soon  as  the  Pope 
had  departed  from  Rome,— the  city  fell  into  ruins,  and 
cattle  grazed  at  the  foot  of  the  altars  in  St.  Peter  s  and  the 
Vatican.  It  saw  the  rise  of  the  Tribune  Rienzi,  '  the  tragic 
actor  in  the  tattered  purple  of  antiquity  '  ;  ^  the  state  of  the 
*  Gregorovius,  vi.  374. 


58     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

peninsula  grew  worse  and  worse,  until  Florence  and   Bologna 
threw  off  their  allegiance  and   declared   war  on  the  Papacy,  a 
war  which  was  aggravated  and  stained  by  the  bloody  massacre 
of  Cesena   under   the    orders  of  Cardinal  Robert  of  Geneva. 
Finally  the  Captivity  rendered  possible  and  probable  the  Great 
Schism,  which  went  far  toward  completing  the  baleful  work 
which  the  residence  in  the  '  sinful  city  of  Avenon '  had  begun. 
The  transfer  of  the  Papacy,  moreover,  initiated  a  period 
of  social  decadence  and  gloom,  during  which  the  corruption 
of  morals  everywhere  made  frightful  progress.      Through  all 
Europe  save  Italy,  says  Renan,^  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth 
centuries  were  a  stagnant  time,  during  which  thought  existed 
no  longer,  literature  was  dead,  art  was  dying,  and  poetry  was 
mute.      The  description,   though  overcharged,  is  true  in  the 
main   outlines.       Corruption   seized   on  the  body  ecclesiastic 
and   spread   through    every  part,   from   the   head   downward. 
Simony  was   openly  practised,  and   was  excused   in  Rome  on 
the  ground  that  everything  belonged   to  the  Pope,  who  was 
only  dealing  with  his  own.      Spiritual  offices  everywhere  were 
sold  and  bartered,  for  gold,  for  love,  for  gaming ;  the  Pope's 
palace   was   a   nest   of  money-changers   and  usurers.      Men's 
hearts  failed  them  for  the  sins  which  they  saw  in  high  places. 
Among  the  masses  of  the  people  superstition  and  ignorance 
prevailed  ;  every  one  believed  in  omens  and  portents,  in  ghosts 
and  demons,  in  magic,  sorcery,  and  witchcraft.^      Signs  and 
wonders  were  of  daily  occurrence.      Sacred  pictures  exhibited 
signs  of  life;  drops  of  sacramental  wine,  Christ's  blood,  worked 
marvels   of   healing ;  relics    were    purchased,   even   by   hard- 
headed  mercantile  men  like  the  Venetians,  for  fabulous  sums, 
and   were  feared    and    venerated    as   if  they   were  talismans ; 
confession  was   equivalent   to  incantation ;    the   Devil   inter- 
vened   actively    in    everyday    life;    the   sheeted   dead   sighed 
plaintively  at  night  along  the  streets  when  danger  impended 
in  the  city.      Rustics  held  their  Feast  of  Fools  in  churches 
and  cathedrals ;   in  Italy  food   was  every  year  set  out  for  the 
dead  during  the  four  days  before  the  Feast  of  the  Chair  of 
Saint  Peter ;  in  England   the   villagers  peeped   in    from  the 
churchyard  on   Sundays  to  catch  sight  of  the  priest  waving 
the  Host,  and  ran  home  delighted,  exclaiming  that  they  had 
^  Renan,  300.  ^  Burckhardt,  508. 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  CHURCH    59 

said  their  Mass,  that  they  had  seen  their  Lord  ;  while  those 
who  partook  of  the  Holy  Communion  saved  bits  of  wafer  to 
rub  their  sick  cattle  withal,  or  watered  their  cabbages  with 
the  crumbs  to  keep  off'  caterpillars.  Of  miracles  there  were 
enough  and  to  spare ;  a  temporary  lack  was  set  down  to 
want  of  piety,  for  sorry  monks  worked  no  wonders.^  There 
was  everywhere  gross  spiritual  neglect ;  parish  priests  were 
admonished  to  teach  their  flocks  once  every  three  months  all 
the  cardinal  points  of  the  Christian  doctrine,  but  teaching 
was  scanty,  and  preaching,  practically  confined  to  the  bishops, 
was  scantier  still. 

The  temporal  possessions  and  political  wars  of  the  Pope 
had  introduced,  had  indeed  almost  necessitated,  the  sale  of 
offices.  Money  was  wanted  ;  and  the  Peter's  Pence  contri- 
buted by  the  northern  nations  of  Europe,  and  the  tribute 
paid  by  the  States  of  the  Church  and  occasionally  by  other 
countries,  such  as  England  and  Portugal,  were  utterly  insuffi- 
cient to  provide  the  needful  sums.  The  expense  to  which 
the  Pope  was  put  for  an  establishment  was  enormous.  In 
addition  to  the  determination  of  points  of  doctrine  and  dis- 
cipline, to  the  granting  of  dispensations,  to  the  confirmations 
and  collations  to  benefices,  to  the  manifold  external  relations 
with  foreign  courts,  there  came  an  immense  mass  of  work  to 
the  Pope  as  to  the  spiritual  court  of  ultimate  appeal.  This 
facility  of  appeal  had  been  made  matter  of  reproach  by 
Hildebert  of  Tours  and  by  Saint  Bernard  of  Clairvaux,"  but 
it  had  continued  and  increased  ;  and  in  the  time  of  Gregory 
the  Twelfth  cases  came  in  for  settlement  at  the  rate  of  two 
thousand  a  week.^  The  huge  amount  of  work  with  which 
the  Pope  had  to  contend  was  far  greater  than  that  which 
came  before  any  other  chancery  in  Christendom.  Whenever 
an  order  on  any  of  these  matters  was  given,  a  minute  had  to  be 
made,  a  Bull  or  other  formal  order  engrossed,  and  an  office 
copy  of  it  transcribed.  It  necessarily  followed  that  the  Pope 
had  to  maintain  an  enormous  staff"  of  clerks  and  other  officials 
in  the  Curia,  in  addition  to  the  officers  of  his  own  household, 
and  this  implied  the  need  for  a  correspondingly  large  revenue. 

But  while  the  expenses   of  the  Curia  were  very   large,  its 

*  Thierry,  Ricits  des  Tempt  Mirevingiens,  i.  21. 

"^  Hist.  Gen.  ii.  283.  »  Wylie,  iil.  18. 


60     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

revenue  was  fluctuating  and  precarious.  Peter''s  Pence  and 
tribute  have  already  been  mentioned.  When  a  crusade  was 
on  foot,  a  tenth  was  levied  on  the  clergy  ;  and  the  same  tax 
was  imposed  on  other  occasions  resembling  a  war  against  the 
unbeliever  ;  and  although  the  proceeds  were  supposed  to  be 
devoted  to  the  crusade,  for  the  help  of  those  warriors  who 
could  not  pay  their  own  way,  it  was  commonly  believed  that 
a  certain  part  of  the  money  never  got  beyond  the  papal 
treasury ;  there  were  all  the  expenses  and  the  inevitable 
peculation  involved  in  the  collecting.  Then  again  the  Pope 
claimed,  though  he  Avas  not  always  successful  in  appropriating, 
the  revenues  of  all  vacant  benefices ;  and  benefices  might  be 
vacated  by  transfer  as  well  as  by  death ;  the  revenues  might, 
on  the  other  hand,  be  annexed  by  the  sovereign.  The  most 
considerable  source  of  revenue  after  this  was  the  first-fruits, 
or  annate?,  levied  on  the  confirmation  of  an  appointment  to 
a  benefice,  whether  vacated  by  death  or  by  transfer  ;  the 
Pope  was  entitled  to  the  first  year's  income  from  all  dignities 
and  benefices  in  his  gift,  and  frequently  a  vacancy  was  ac- 
companied by  three  or  four  transfers,  each  bringing  in  its 
crop  of  first-fruits.  Letters  of  reversion  and  expectancies  also 
produced  a  goodly  revenue ;  and  to  these  were  added  the 
tithes  from  the  clergy  and  the  offerings  of  the  faithful.^  Pope 
John  the  Twenty-second  drew  up  a  regular  tariff^  for  collation 
to  different  benefices  :  three  thousand  gulden  were  charged 
for  the  Bishopric  of  Munster,  thirty  thousand  for  the  archi- 
episcopal  pallium  of  Mainz,  twenty  thousand  for  that  of  Trier, 
and  the  like."  Absolution  for  a  city,  taking  off'  the  interdict, 
reconsecrating  the  cemetery,  cost  forty,  fifty,  or  sixty  gulden.^ 
Every  appointment,  however  humble,  was  sold.  By  these 
means  John,  being  a  careful  and  thrifty  man,  one  naturally 
opposed  to  any  such  doctrine  as  that  of  Apostolic  Poverty, 
managed  to  amass  the  enormous  sum  of  twenty-five  millions 
of  gold  florins,  which  his  successor,  Benedict  the  Twelfth, 
another  careful  and  thrifty  Pope,  managed  to  double ;  "*  the 
entire  sum  was  most  royally  squandered  by  Benedict's  suc- 
cessor, Clement  the  Sixth.    The  Popes  after  John  the  Twenty- 

*  Riezler,  5.  ^  Ullmann,  i.  180. 

^  Riezler,  80.  *  Lindner  {H.  and  P.),  i.  458. 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  CHURCH    61 

second  usually  adopted   the  simpler  plan   of  taking  all   they 
could  get,  preferring  a  higher  bid  to  the  lower.      Archbishop 
WiUiam  of  Cologne  paid  Clement  the  Sixth  seventy  thousand 
florins ;    Archbishop   Friedrich    paid    Urban    the    Fifth    one 
hundred  and  twenty   thousand  florins  ;  the  Archbishopric  of 
Mainz  cost  John  of  Nassau  fifty  thousand  ;  and  other  German 
prelates  paid    more    than   twice    that    sum.^       England   was 
esteemed  a  veritable  gold-mine,  and  Englishmen  had  to  pay 
accordingly.        De  Grey   paid   ten   thousand  pounds  for  the 
Archbishopric  of  York,  and  others  the   like   or  even   larger 
sums  ;    his   bishopric  cost  Robert  de  Orford  fifteen  thousand 
pounds.       Every  new   prelate  was  bound  to   start  within   a 
month  of  election  on  his  journey  to   Rome  for  collation  ;  he 
frequently   returned  crippled    for  years    by   his  debt   to   the 
Lombards  or  the  Jews.^      Pope  Clement  the  Sixth,  while  his 
favourite    the    Countess    of    Turenne    dispensed   places    and 
preferments   for  a  price,   while   he   himself  provided  for  his 
nephews  and  his    court   by    imposing   taxes    which    irritated 
Teutons  and   Italians  alike,   laughed,  and   said   that  none  of 
his  predecessors  had  known  how  to  be  Popes.^      At  the  same 
time,  he  was  careful  to  keep  in  touch  with  the  royal   courts  ; 
he  told  his  cardinal  that  if  the  King  of  England  wanted  to 
give  a  bishopric  to  an  ass,  he  must  be  humoured  ;  and  in  1349 
a  donkey  did  make  its  way  into  the  consistory  with  a  petition 
round  its  neck  that  he,  too,  might  be  made  a  bishop.      The 
Popes  also  exacted  more  direct  patronage  than  formerly.      In 
1226  two   prebends  in  each  cathedral  were  demanded.      In 
1265    the   Pope  claimed  to   deal   directly  with  all  vacancies 
occurring  in  benefices  while  the  holders  were  in  Rome  ;  and 
as  all  bishops  came  to   Rome  for  collation,  and  many  prelates 
of  high  degree  came  there  to  push  their  litigation,  the  number 
of  death   vacancies  thus    arising    was    not    small.      When    a 
bishop    was    translated   or   made    cardinal,    the    Pope    dealt 
directly  with    the  vacancy    thus   caused,   for    he  alone  could 
loose   the   tie   which    bound    a    bishop   to    his    see.       In  the 
fourteenth  centurv  the  right  of  direct  nomination  of  bishops 
was  claimed,  and  the  system  of  reservation  and  provision  was 
extended  to   the  episcopate.      Many  Italians   were  thus  pro- 
1  Lindner  {H.  and  P.),  ii.  48,  88,  330,  355.      ^  Capes,  223.      '  Pastor,  i.  91. 


62     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

vided  with  livings  both  in  England  and  in  France ;  and  they 
were  usually  non-residents  and  pluralists.  At  the  beginning 
of  the  Great  Schism,  Clement  the  Seventh  leagued  himself 
with  the  Duke  of  Anjou  to  spoil  the  Gallican  Church  :  he 
doubled  the  tithes  ;  he  reserved  the  collation  of  all  benefices  ; 
his  collectors  seized  the  personal  property  and  the  cash  left 
by  deceased  bishops  and  abbes ;  benefices  were  put  up  for 
sale  to  the  hig-hest  bidder.  It  is  no  wonder  that  churches 
became  deserted,  that  clerks  were  reduced  to  beggary,  that 
the  revenues  of  colleges  and  hospitals  were  plundered,  that 
scholars  were  dispersed,  that  the  University  of  Paris  saw  her 
children  abandoning  her  maternal  breast,  which  had  no  longer 
the  wherewithal  to  nourish  them.^  At  Rome  corruption 
reached  its  climax  under  Pope  Boniface  the  Ninth.  Simony, 
forbidden  to  others,  was  rampant  at  Rome  itself;  everything 
could  be  bought  at  the  papal  court  for  money,  and  without 
money  no  justice  or  redress  was  to  be  had ;  full  many  a 
devout  ecclesiastic  re-echoed  the  words  of  Grosseteste  :  '  Ah  ! 
money,  money,  how  infinite  is  thy  power,  most  of  all  in  the 
court  of  Rome  ! '  The  Commons  of  England  complained  that 
no  king  in  Christendom  had  one-fourth  of  the  revenue  that 
went  from  England  alone  to  the  Pope.^ 

Bad  as  was  the  reputation  of  the  Curia  for  simony,  the 
moral  repute  of  the  Pope's  court  was  not  much  better.  The 
majority  of  the  Popes  at  Avignon  were  indeed  themselves 
men  of  pure  livelihood  ;  but  the  court  of  Clement  the  Sixth 
became  renowned  for  its  voluptuousness  and  sensual  luxury, 
and  the  '  sinful  city  of  Avenon "  became  a  byword  in  Europe. 
The  ladies,  the  sisters  and  nieces  of  great  prelates,  held  their 
courts  of  the  ^  ffaie  science''  \  their  salons  were  the  recognised 
avenues  of  promotion.  Those  who  wanted  rich  benefices  in 
the  time  of  Clement  the  Fifth  laid  their  petitions  on  the 
white  bosom  of  the  beautiful  Brunisand  de  Foix ;  in  the  time 
of  Innocent  the  Sixth  they  paid  their  court  to  Enemonde  de 
Bourbon.  Great  churchmen  might  be  celibate,  but  many 
of  them  were  not  chaste,  and  female  honour  was  a  thing  of 
little  worth  in  their  eyes.  When  Butillo,  in  the  time  of  his 
uncle,  Urban  the  Sixth,  broke  into  a  convent  and  ravished  a 
^  Martin,  v.  349.  '^  Capes,  100. 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  CHURCH    63 

beautiful  high-born  nun,  the  Pope  excused  his  nephew,  who 
was  more  than  forty  years  old,  by  ascribing  his  sin  to  the 
fire  of  youth ;  and  when  the  nephew  of  Gerard  de  Puy, 
Cardinal  Legate  at  Perugia,  committed  the  like  offence 
against  a  noble  lady,  whereby  she  in  her  haste  to  avoid  his 
brutality  slipped,  fell  from  her  window,  and  died,  the  Cardinal 
placidly  inquired  of  the  enraged  Perugians  whether  they 
thought  that  all  the  French  were  eunuchs  !  ^ 

The  papal  court,  instead  of  being  a  model  of  virtue  for 
mankind,  was  under  too  many  of  the  Popes  a  hotbed  of  vice. 
The  riotous  licence  of  the  younger  cardinals,  says  Petrarch, 
was  matched  by  the  senile  debauchery  of  their  elders.'^ 
Every  one  has  read  the  story  of  the  Jew  Abraham,  who 
visited  the  papal  court.  He  '  began  circumspectly  to  acquaint 
himself  with  the  ways  of  the  Pope  and  the  cardinals  and  the 
other  prelates  and  all  the  courtiers  ;  and  from  what  he  saw 
for  himself,  being  a  man  of  great  intelligence,  or  learned 
from  others,  he  discovered  that  without  distinction  of  rank 
they  were  all  sunk  in  the  most  disgraceful  lewdness,  sinning 
not  only  in  the  way  of  nature,  but  after  the  manner  of  the 
men  of  Sodom,  without  any  restraint  of  remorse  or  shame,  in 
such  sort  that,  when  any  great  favour  was  to  be  procured, 
the  influence  of  the  courtesans  and  boys  was  of  no  small 
moment.  Moreover,  he  found  one  and  all  gluttonous,  wine- 
bibbers,  and  next  after  lewdness  most  addicted  to  the  shame- 
ful service  of  the  belly,  like  brute  beasts.'  ^  Saint  Catherine 
of  Siena,  as  will  be  seen  later  on,  is  as  scathing  in  her 
denunciation  as  is  Boccaccio  in  the  Decameron. 

The  cardinals,  says  Nicolas  de  Clamanges,  look  down 
upon  primates  and  patriarchs ;  they  make  themselves  the 
equals  of  kings.  They  were  judged  very  unfavourably,  how- 
ever, by  the  outside  world ;  *  they  stank  in  the  nostrils  of 
Christendom  for  their  avarice  and  corruption.  Henry  of 
Hesse,  vice-chancellor  of  the  University  of  Paris,  censured  in 
scathing  terms  their  simony,  pomp,  and  libertinage.  They 
were  of  all  clerks  the  most  noted  pluralists.  '  Not  two  or 
three,  nor  ten  or  twenty,  but  one  or  two  hundred  benefices, 

1  Sismondi  (/.  K.),  iv,  412  ;  v.  38.  -  Gardner,  2S. 

'  Decameron,  i.  36.  *  Linder  (/f.  and  L.),  i.  457. 


64     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

sometimes  even  four  or  five  hundred,  do  they  accumulate,"'  says 
Nicolas  de  Clamanges,^  '  and  these,  too,  not   mean   or  small 
ones,  but  the  best  and  fattest.'      The  Popes  heaped  on  them 
pluralities   with   unstinted  hand,   so  that  'in   1385  Charles 
the    Sixth    of    France    asserted    in    an    ordinance    that    the 
cardinals  had  absorbed  all   the  preferments  in  the  kingdom 
— benefices,     abbeys,    orphanages,    hospitals,    etc. — exacting 
revenue  to  the  utmost  and   leaving  the  institutions  disabled 
and  the  fabric  to  fall  into  ruin.'  ^     The  Doctor  already  quoted 
makes  the  same  charge  against  them — nothing  could  equal 
their   overbearing    pride    and    arrogance,    but    their    private 
lives    were   a   scandal  :   '  I   pass   over  their  simoniacal  inter- 
views with   the  Pope,  I    pass    over  their   venal   patronage,   I 
pass  over  the  most  disgraceful  and  damnable  corruptions  and 
promotions  almost  entirely  due  to  them  ;  I  pass  over  the  pay 
and  rewards  they  received  from  temporal  powers  for  abetting 
them  in  church  matters  wrongfully.     Nor  will  I  mention   the 
adulteries,   the  lewdness,    the   fornications    with    which  they 
now  defile  the  Roman  curia.*'      Their  usury  and  trading  and 
many  other  more  grievous   sins   are  omitted   by  this   dutiful 
son  of  the  Church.     Pope  Urban  the  Sixth  had  some  grounds 
for  his  public  reproach ;  he  preached  in  open  consistory  on 
the  text,   '  I  am  the  Good   Shepherd,'  and  descanted  on  the 
manifold  failings  of  the  lord  cardinals.      It  is  small  wonder 
that  they  took  it  ill ;  the  truth  was  a  bitter  pill  to  swallow, 
and  in  this  instance  this  bit  of  bitter  truth  had  its  effect  in 
producing  the  Great  Schism.^      When  they  were   sent  abroad 
on  affairs  of  State,  they  lived  on  the  country  to  which  they 
were   deputed    at   the    rate    of    a    hundred   golden  gulden   a 
day ;  ^  and  when  complimentary  visits  were  paid  to  them   at 
the  papal  court,  it  was  useless  for  the  visitor  to  come  empty- 
handed.      William   Langland    spoke    but   the    common    con- 
viction when  he  declared  that 

'  The  country  is  the  curseder  that  cardinals  come  in, 
And  where  they  lie  and  linger  most^  lechery  there  reigneth.' 

Nicolas  de  Clamanges  is  no  less  severe  in  his  strictures  on 
the   French   bishops :   '  there    are    many    of    them,'   he  says, 

1  Gratius,  ii.  559.  "  Martene,  i.,  1613,  4. 

^  De  Schisinate,  17.  ^  Lindner  (//.  and  L.),  i.  443. 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  CHURCH    65 

'  who  have  never  visited  their  dioceses,  who  have  never  seen 
the  faces  nor  heard  the  voices  nor  felt  the  wounds  of  their 
flocks  :  luxury,  pomp,  and  avarice  are  the  three  Harpies  who 
rule  their  lives.  The  bishops  delight  in  wine,  banquet,  and 
games ;  in  lofty  houses  and  wide  palaces  ;  in  heaping  up 
money ;  thev  are  given  up  to  drinking,  fornication,  and 
gambling ;  they  spend  their  days  in  hunting,  fishing,  and 
tennis  ;  their  nights  in  feasting,  dancing,  and  debauchery.'  ^ 
The  German  bishops  were  on  their  part  'wolves  and  hirelings,' 
elected  for  the  sake  of  their  birth  and  breeding  by  worldly 
chapters  who  drove  hard  bargains  with  them  ;  their  sees 
were  liable  to  be  taxed  both  by  the  temporal  and  the  spiritual 
powers;  the  elections  were  all  subject  to  the  Pope's  con- 
firmation, the  donation  of  the  regalia  by  the  civil  power 
being  but  an  empty  form. 

The  bishops  were  the  connecting  link  between  the  general- 
issimo and  the  rank  and  file  of  the  Church,  though  some  of 
the  bishoprics  were  of  so  wide  an  extent — that  of  Utrecht, 
for  example,  which  covered  the  whole  of  Holland — that  it 
was  impossible  for  the  bishop  to  become  acquainted  with  the 
whole  of  his  diocese  or  the  whole  of  his  parish  clergy.  Nor 
did  they  attempt  the  task,  for,  as  a  general  rule,  they  were 
absorbed  in  the  temporal  interests  of  their  sees.  They  were 
the  spiritual  landed  nobility,  corresponding  to  the  dukes, 
earls,  and  counts  among  the  lay  nobles.  They  were  almost 
invariably  warriors  and  statesmen  rather  than  mere  ecclesiastics. 
'  The  idea  of  making  a  man  a  bishop  or  an  archdeacon  on 
account  of  his  zeal,  his  energy,  his  success  in  the  humble 
round  of  parochial  duty,  is  one  which  would  hardly  have 
occurred  to  sensible  men  in  mediaeval  times.'  Since  land 
alone  gave  social  distinction,  the  wide  possessions  of  the 
Church  were  coveted  by  German  princes  and  nobles  as  a 
welcome  means  of  procuring  riches  and  honour  for  the 
younger  sons  of  their  families.  As  early  as  1139  Pope 
innocent  the  Second  applied  the  feudal  system  to  the  Church 
by  declaring  at  the  Lateran  Council  that  all  ecclesiastical 
dio-nities  were  received  and  held  of  the  Popes  like  fiefs  ; "  and 
like    fiefs,   church    dignities    were    too   often   conferred    as   a 

1  Gratius,  ii.  562.  "^  Lea,  i.  6. 

E 


66       IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

reward  for  past  services  without  thought  of  the  attendant 
duties.  Bishops  and  abbots  were,  above  all  else,  the  spiritual 
lords  and  princes  of  the  Empire ;  pious  men  might  occa- 
sionally be  inducted,  but  the  possession  and  defence  of  land 
was  the  leading  motive  in  the  strife  after  the  higher  church 
dignities.^ 

Under  these  circumstances  simony,  notwithstanding  the 
efforts  of  Pope  Gregory  the  Seventh  and  his  successors, 
became  almost  universal.  Certain  of  the  kings  of  France 
were  notorious  as  vendors  of  bishoprics,  and  where  money 
was  not  paid,  promotion  commonly  went  by  favour  or 
relationship.  The  worthier  bishops  who  occasionally  appeared 
could  do  little  to  enforce  respect  for  religion  and  morality ; 
ill  those  days  of  violence  the  prizes  were  for  those  whose 
martial  prowess  won  respect  for  the  rights  of  their  churches 
and  vassals.  '  All  this  was  in  some  sort  a  necessity  of  the 
incongruous  union  of  feudal  noble  and  Christian  prelate,  and 
though  more  marked  in  Germany  than  elsewhere,  it  was  to 
be  seen  everywhere,'^  The  bishops  of  Normandy  fought 
under  Philip  the  Bold  :  the  Bishop  of  Beauvais  was  captured 
by  Richard  of  the  Lion  Heart,  and  his  coat  of  mail  sent  to 
the  Pope  with  the  inquiry  :  '  Know  now  whether  it  be  thy 
son's  coat  or  not  ? '  The  same  question  was  asked  by  the 
Marquis  of  Montferrat  when  he  captured  Aymon,  Bishop  of 
Vercelli.  In  1265  the  troops  of  Manfred  of  Sicily  captured 
the  Bishop  of  Verona.  Such  was  the  worldly,  turbulent 
character  of  bishops  generally  that  pious  souls  believed  that 
no  bishop  could  enter  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  The  good 
prior  of  Clairvaux,  on  being  told  that  he  was  elected  Bishop 
of  Tournay,  cast  himself  on  the  ground,  offering  to  become 
a  vagrant  monk,  but  a  bishop  never.  '  An  ecclesiastic  in 
Paris  declared  that  he  could  believe  all  things  except  that 
any  German  bishop  could  be  saved.' "  Nor  was  the  moral 
character  of  certain  of  the  French  archbishops  and  bishops 
above  suspicion.  Gerard  de  Rougemont,  Archbishop  of 
Besan9on,  lived  in  incest  with  the  Abbess  of  Remiremont 
and  other  holy  women ;  the  Bishop  of  Toul,  Maheu  de 
Lorraine,  was  abandoned  to  debauchery,  his  favourite  concu- 
^  Grube,  2.  ^  Lea,  i.  lo.  ^  Ibid,  i.  13. 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  CHURCH    67 

bine  being  his  own  daughter  by  a  nun ;  Berenger  was 
eventually  removed  from  the  archbishopric  of  Narbonne 
because  of  his  scandalous  life  and  character. 

In  England  the  archbishops  and  bishops  were  generally 
educated  and  capable  men.  There  were,  of  course,  exceptions. 
Walter  Reynolds,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  under  Edward 
the  Second,  was  said  to  be  so  illiterate  that  he  could  not  spell 
his  own  name  aright ;  Lewis  de  Beaumont,  Bishop  of 
Durham,  who  for  days  before  his  consecration  tried  to  learn 
the  Latin  formula  which  he  had  to  repeat,  finally  stuck  at 
one  long  word  and  said,  '  Let  it  be  taken  as  said,'  and 
when  he  came  to  another  troublesome  phrase  muttered,  '  By 
Saint  Louis,  he  is  an  ill-mannered  fellow  who  put  in  that 
word  here.'  ^  In  England  also  it  was  held  somewhat  of 
an  anomaly  for  a  bishop,  such  as  Henry  Despenser  of  Norwich, 
to  be  a  man  of  war ;  but  when  Henry  the  Fourth  sent  to 
Innocent  the  Seventh  the  armour  of  the  traitor  Bishop 
Scrope,  with  the  old  request  that  he  would  know  whether 
this  was  his  son's  coat  or  not,  the  Pope  innocently  answered, 
'  An  evil  beast  hath  devoured  him.'  The  bishops  generally 
were  able  men,  and  the  chief  charge  brought  against  them 
was  that  they  were  the  servants,  not  of  God,  but  of  the 
King.  The  employment  of  bishops  in  the  civil  administration 
of  the  State  was  no  new  system  ;  it  had  been  adopted  in 
every  country  of  Christendom  for  several  hundreds  of  years, 
and  its  effects  have  been  aptly  described  in  its  inception  in 
words  which  are  equally  applicable  to  the  close  of  the 
fourteenth  century  :  '  With  power  and  great  place  came  in 
worldliness  and  corruption  in  increasing  proportion  as  time 
went  on,  and  though  as  statesmen  these  great  bishops  were 
probably  not  worse  councillors,  and  often  were  more  intellio-ent 
ones,  with  a  natural  leaning  to  order  and  peace,  than  the 
rough  dukes  and  counts  with  whom  they  acted,  yet  the 
meaning  and  consciousness  of  their  religious  office  became 
more  and  more  lost  in  their  secular  greatness.'  ^  Wyclif  and 
other  reformers  who  held  the  impracticable  Utopian  doctrine 
that  the  clergy  should  practise  apostolic  poverty  were  very 
severe  on  '  Caesarean  clergy ' ;  they  took  no  heed  of  the  needs 

*  Capes,  51.  '-  Church,  The  Beginning  nj  the  Middle  Ages,  231. 


68       IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

of  the  kingdom.  For  the  civil  administration  the  king 
needed  the  services  of  a  certain  number  of  able,  educated, 
and  trustworthy  men,  and  he  could  find  many  more  of  the 
class  he  wanted  among  the  clergy  than  among  the  nobility. 
These  men  must  be  recompensed.  The  King  lived  '  of  his 
own ' ;  taxes  were  exceptional,  and  were  levied  for  special 
purposes.  The  ordinary  mode  of  recompense  was  by  giving  a 
man  land  on  which  he  could  live;  and  as  the  grant  of  baronies 
in  fee-simple  was  out  of  the  question,  the  only  resource  was 
the  gift  of  ecclesiastical  preferments,  which  were  at  best 
merely  estates  for  life.  This  was  the  attitude  taken  by  such 
able  kings  as  Philip  the  Fair  and  Edward  the  First.  In 
Germany,  Bishops  Raban  of  Speier,  Matthew  of  Worms, 
and  Conrad  of  Verden  served  King  Rupert  as  diplomats. 
'  There  was  much  to  be  said,'  remarks  the  Rev.  W.  W. 
Capes,^  '  for  the  King's  desire  to  reward  his  ministers  with 
ecclesiastical  preferment,  and  to  relax  the  rules  of  discipline 
in  their  behalf.  Only  in  their  order  could  he  find  the 
trained  lawyers  with  the  literary  skill  he  needed  for  his  work. 
His  own  resources  were  too  scanty  to  reward  them  fitly.' 
The  Chancellor  and  Treasurer  were  nearly  always  dignitaries 
of  the  Church.  Promotion  to  a  bishopric  could  easily  be 
arranged  with  the  Pope,  and  was  a  convenient  reward  for 
services  rendered.  The  system  was  advantageous  for  the 
State,  but  disastrous  for  the  Church.  Many  of  the  bishops 
thus  became  engrossed  in  civil  pursuits  ;  they  filled  important 
offices  of  State,  and  played  a  foremost  part  in  diplomacy 
and  politics.  But  their  episcopal  duties  suffered,  and  the 
Courts  Christian  went  by  the  board ;  these  things  were 
either  left  undone  altogether,  or  were  performed  imperfectly 
by  deputy  ;  the  Church  was  thus  starved  for  the  sake  of 
the  State.  Yet  there  were  many  bishops,  after  the  fashion 
of  Bishop  Grosseteste,  who  were  engaged  solely  in  their 
episcopal  duties.  Many  remained  at  their  posts  and  did 
their  duty  manfully  during  the  Black  Death.  But  their 
sympathies  again  were  with  the  beneficed  clergy  rather  than 
with  the  poorer  parish  priests,  whom  they  were  ready  to 
suspend  if  they  received  more  than  six  marks  a  year,  little 

1  Capes,  42. 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  CHURCH    69 

more  than  a  pittance  absolutely  needful  for  a  yeoman's 
family,  while  some  ministers  with  cure  of  souls  received  less 
than  the  pay  of  a  common  soldier.  The  unfeeling  language 
used  by  these  bishops  in  their  pastorals  '  rankled  in  men's 
minds,  and  from  this  time  we  may  note  the  growing  sense  of 
jarring  interests  and  divided  sympathies  between  the  higher 
and  the  lower  clergy,  as  in  the  country  at  large  between  the 
landowners  and  the  peasants. '  ^  Like  the  bishops  on  the 
Continent,  the  English  bishops  also  were  not  ashamed  to 
increase  their  incomes  by  the  levy  of  a  tax  from  priests  whom 
they  allowed  to  keep  concubines. 

In  Germany  the  bishops  were  often  not  statesmen,  much 
less  ecclesiastics  ;  they  were  warriors  pure  and  simple,  fighting 
to  defend  or  to  increase  the  lands  of  the  Church.  When  the 
newly  elected  Bishop  of  Hildesheim  inquired  for  the  library 
of  his  predecessors,  he  was  taken  to  the  armoury  and  was 
shown  the  coats  of  mail  and  the  arms  hanging  on  the  walls  ; 
these  were  the  books,  he  was  told,  with  which  the  rights  of 
the  diocese  had  been  won  and  by  which  they  must  be  main- 
tained. Around  the  bishops'  churches  there  had  gradually 
arisen,  especially  during  the  Kaiserless  time  of  the  Empire, 
wealthy  states  with  an  industrial  population,  devoid  of  landed 
property,  but  naturally  desirous  of  political  position.  These 
burghers  were  the  natural  enemies  of  the  bishops,  and  with 
them  they  were  constantly  at  war.  In  Worms  there  was 
strife  between  the  bishop  and  the  citizens  :  King  Wenzel 
declared  for  the  latter,  King  Rupert  for  the  former.  In 
Magdeburg  the  burghers  fell  upon  the  houses  of  the  canons, 
burned  two  of  them,  drove  the  clergy  out  of  the  city  (1402) ; 
they  were  brought  back  next  year  by  the  Count  of  Schwartz- 
burg  ;  the  old  archbishop,  Albert  of  Querfurt,  known  for 
his  greed,  died,  and  the  count's  son,  twenty-one  years  of  age, 
was  elected  archbishop, — he  never  read  a  Mass  for  the  next 
thirty-three  years.  In  Brunswick  there  was  war  between  the 
clercry  and  the  burghers,  and  the  Mendicant  orders  backed  up 
the  citizens.  The  Bishop  of  Halberstadt  laid  his  city  under 
an  interdict,  but  he  himself  died  in  1404,  and  long  lay 
unburied  since  hv  was  himself  excommunicated  for  throttling 

'  Capes,  So. 


70      IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

a  canon  with  his  own  hands.  Bishop  Gerhard  of  Hildesheim, 
successor  to  the  bishop  mentioned  above,  fought  with  and 
took  prisoners  the  Duke  of  Brunswick,  the  Archbishop  of 
Magdeburg,  and  the  Bishop  of  Halberstadt ;  he  spent  their 
ransoms  in  providing  a  golden  ceiHng  to  the  tower  of  the 
Church  of  the  Virgin  Mary,^  In  Minden  there  were  disputed 
elections  at  the  end  of  the  century ;  the  citizens  arose,  turned 
out  the  clergy,  and  burned  the  chapter-house.  The  Bishop 
of  Paderborn  waged  war  against  the  association  of  knights. 
The  Bishop  of  Wuerzburg  seized  his  own  chapter  in  their 
copes  and  hoods,  imprisoned  them,  and  held  them  to  ransom. 
Bishop  Brunlow  quarrelled  with  the  citizens  of  Stralsund 
because  they  had  cut  down  the  funeral-fees,  robbed  them  of 
their  cattle,  and  hacked  the  hands  and  feet  off  their  workmen  ; 
the  burghers  retaliated  by  binding  three  priests  to  ladders 
and  throwing  them  in  the  fire.  The  moral  character  of  some 
of  the  bishops  was  often  sufficiently  shocking.  John  of  Liege, 
like  young  Gunther  of  Schwartzburg,  never  got  himself 
ordained  ;  they  were  both  lusty,  wild  warriors,  who  did  their 
work  by  deputy.  Bishop  Otto,  appointed  by  the  Pope  to 
Minden  in  1404,  was  a  man  whom  no  one  would  believe  on 
his  oath,  a  debaucher  of  nuns.  In  Augsburg  clergy  and 
laity  were  alike  addicted  to  unnatural  offences ;  the  city 
council  visited  the  laity  with  severe  punishment,  but  the 
bishops  delayed  to  do  the  like  with  the  clergy,  whereupon 
three  seculars  and  a  Dominican  were  caught,  stripped,  bound 
hand  and  foot  and  placed  in  a  cage  ;  one  was  hanged,  and  the 
other  three  starved  to  death.  With  such  scenes  disgracing 
the  whole  Empire  at  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  and  the 
beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century,  it  was  little  wonder  that 
when  any  man  inquired  who  was  at  the  bottom  of  any  new 
war  or  villainy,  he  was  invariably  told  it  was  some  bishop, 
provost,  dean,  or  priest.^  The  real  cause  of  the  constant 
strife  was  that  Germany  was  then  intent  on  winning  back 
from  the  clergy  the  rights  and  possessions  which  the  clergy 
had  acquired  from  the  laity. 

The  archdeacon  was  the  delegate  of  the  bishop  in  judicial 
work  ;  he  was  a  veritable  Mr.  Worldly  Wiseman,   learned  in 
1  Hoefler,  396.  '  Ibid-  382. 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  CHURCH    71 

the  law  and  cunning  to  profit  thereby  ;  it  was  his  function 
to  suck  the  marrow  from  the  bones  of  all  bodies  committed 
to  the  spiritual  charge  of  his  lord  the  bishop.  As  soon  as 
he  obtained  his  post,  he  usually  got  a  dispensation,  and 
hurried  off'  to  Bologna  to  fit  himself  for  his  work.  There  he 
became  acquainted  with  all  the  intricacies  of  the  canon  law, 
he  fell  in  love  with  beauteous  Italian  ladies,  he  gambled  and 
got  into  debt,  he  learned  the  arts  of  poisoning  and  the  other 
faculties  which  went  to  make  up  the  virtu  of  the  average 
Italian  churchman.  When  they  returned  from  Bologna,  the 
archdeacons  began  to  exercise  their  abilities  for  the  benefit 
of  one  at  the  expense  of  the  many.  In  England,  as  in 
France,  they  hurried  through  their  visitations,  hurling  excom- 
munications right  and  left,  claiming  from  every  parish  a  fixed 
charge,  known  as  the  '  archdeacon's  pig '  or  the  '  larder  gift.' 
Chaucer's  Archdeacon  was — 

'  a  man  of  heigh  degree, 
That  boldly  dide  execucioun 
In  punisshiuge  of  fornicacioun^ 
Of  wicchecraft,  and  eek  of  bauderye, 
Of  diffamacioun,  and  avoutrye. 
Of  chirche-reves,  and  of  testaments, 
Of  contractes,  and  of  lakke  of  sacraments, 
And  eek  of  many  another  mauer  cryme 
Which  nedeth  nat  rehercen  at  this  tyme  ; 
Of  usure,  and  of  symonye  also. 
But  certes,  lechours  dide  he  grettest  wo  ; 
They  sholde  singeu,  if  that  they  were  hent ; 
And  smale  tytheres  weren  foule  y-shent  .   .   . 
For  smale  tythes  and  for  smal  offringe. 
He  made  the  people  pitously  to  singe. 
For  er  the  bishop  caughte  hem  with  his  hook, 
They  weren  in  the  erchedeknes  book. 
Thanne  hadde  he,  thurgh  his  Jurisdiccioun, 
Power  to  doon  on  hem  correccioun.' 

It  is  little  wonder  that  pious  souls,  accused  of  giving  too 
small  tithes  or  offerings,  should  have  puzzled  themselves, 
from  the  time  of  John  of  Salisbury  onwards,  as  to  whether  it 
were  possible  that  an  archdeacon  could  be  saved. 

Like  the  archdeacons,  their  subordinates,  the  rural  deans, 
^  Stubbs,  Seventeen  Lectures,  i6o. 


72       IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCH^S 

the  archipretres  of  France,  were  accused  of  avarice  and 
rapacity  ;  the  Bishop  of  Exeter  complained,  moreover,  that 
they  gave  their  official  seals  to  substitutes,  '  men  of  low 
character,  who  falsified  official  registers  and  by  their  fraudu- 
lent acts  brought  the  office  into  disrepute.'  ^ 

Discipline  within  the  Church  was  hard  to  maintain,  not 
only  because  of  the  frequent  spirit  of  insubordination,  but 
also  because  of  the  right  of  freedom  of  control  which  was  too 
often  purchased  from  Rome  for  a  price.  Grandisson,  Bishop 
of  Exeter,  drew  up  armed  retainers  in  front  of  his  cathedral 
to  prevent  the  visitation  of  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury ; 
Antony  de  Bek,  Bishop  of  Durham,  threw  into  prison  the 
notaries  and  clerks  who  served  on  him  the  citation  of  the 
Archbishop  of  York  ;  a  rector  of  Bromley  sent  a  chaplain  in 
full  canonicals  to  excommunicate  his  own  bishop  for  passing 
sentence  of  deprivation  against  him.  Cathedral  chapters 
quarrelled  with  their  bishops,  pleading  ancient  precedent, 
raising  technical  points  of  law,  and  appealing  to  King  or  to 
Pope  to  protect  their  vested  rights.  There  was  something 
to  be  said  for  Wyclif's  contention  that  wealth  had  introduced 
vice  into  the  Church,  that  the  clergy  should  follow  their 
master,  Christ,  *  who  for  our  sakes  became  poor,'  that  '  it 
belongeth  not  to  Christ's  vicar  nor  to  priests  of  Holy  Church 
to  have  rents  here  on  earth.' 

Among  the  parish  priests  it  is  necessary  to  distinguish  the 
beneficed  from  the  unbeneficed  clergy.  The  rectors  were 
commonly  men  of  good  birth,  enjoying  the  greater  and  the 
lesser  tithes,  and  possessing  comfortable  houses.  The  parson- 
ages usually  had  guest-chambers,  for  it  was  the  recognised 
duty  of  the  beneficed  clergy  to  be  '  given  to  hospitality,'  and 
to  entertain  not  only  their  own  ecclesiastical  superiors,  who 
were  often  more  dreaded  than  welcome,  but  strangers  of 
every  degree.  The  rector  had  a  pewter  platter  and  a  horn 
drinking-cup  placed  for  any  chance  guest,  and  gave  him  a 
bed  of  clean  straw  or  perchance  a  flock  mattress  for  the  night. 
When  in  1240  the  Papal  Legate  assembled  the  rectors  of  the 
churches  in  Berkshire,  one  of  the  arguments  of  the  rectors  for 
refusing  to  contribute  as  the  Legate  desired  was  that  their 
^  Capes,  240 ;  Lavisse,  ill.  ii.  359. 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  CHL'RCH         73 

churches  had  been  endowed  and  enriched  '  with  lands  and 
revenues  for  the  especial  purpose  that  the  rectors  of  them 
should  receive  guests  rich  as  well  as  poor,  and  show  hospitality 
to  laity  as  well  as  clergy,  according  to  their  means,  as  the 
custom  of  the  place  required."  ^ 

Rectors,  however,  were  comparativelv  few  in  the  land,  and 
vicars  were  nianv.  Manv  churches  were  appropriated  to 
cathedrals,  very  many  more  to  monasteries.  The  monks  had 
acquired  a  large  number  of  advowsons ;  they  scamped  their 
duties,  getting  as  much  and  doing  as  little  as  possible.  The 
Benedictines  had  formerly  been  model  landlords  and  had 
restored  ag-riculture  ;  the  Cistercians  had  maintained  model 
farms  and  were  successful  sheep-breeders,  but  the  Black  Death 
had  brought  them  into  difficulty  ;  they  had  been  obliged  to 
let  their  farms  on  '  stock  and  land '  leases,  and  being  in 
straits  thev  paid  their  vicars  as  low  as  possible.  *  The 
monks,'  said  Thomas  Gascoigne,  '  do  nothing  for  the  poor 
parishioners  whose  tithes  they  get,  though  they  say  they  pray 
for  them,  and  provide  an  ill-paid  vicar.  Not  content  with 
the  tithes,  they  try  to  get  the  fees  and  offerings  in  the 
churches,  refuse  even  to  allow  parish  churches  to  have  fonts, 
that  thev  may  force  parents  to  bring  their  children  to  be 
baptized  within  the  abbey  walls."  Wyclif  also  was  very 
severe  on  the  worldly-rich  bishops  and  abbots  to  whom  parish 
churches  were  appropriated,  and  not  less  severe  on  the  monks 
and  Austin  Canons  who  neglected  their  spiritual  duties. 
'  They  do  not  the  office  of  curates  neither  in  teaching  nor 
preaching,  nor  giving  of  sacraments,  nor  receiving  of  poor 
men  in  the  parish,  but  set  an  idiot  for  vicar  or  parish  priest 
that  cannot  do  the  office  of  a  good  curate,  and  yet  the  poor 
parish  maintains  him."' "  Nicolas  de  Clamanges  complains 
that  the  Popes  appointed  parish  priests  who  were  not  taken 
from  the  schools  or  universities,  but  from  the  plough  or  from 
the  vilest  callings,  priests  who  knew  no  more  Latin  than  they 
did  Arabic,  who  could  not  tell  one  letter  of  the  alphabet 
from  another,  who  spent  their  time  in  indecency,  debauch, 
gambling,  and  quarrels.  His  tutor,  Pierre  d'Ailly,  in  one  of 
his  earliest  sermons,  complains  of  the  priests  for  the  anxious 
^  Matthew  Paris,  i.  285.  -  Capes,  117,  213. 


74      IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

thought  they  bestowed  on  their  dress,  on  their  boots,  on 
their  hair,  on  their  rings  ;  very  many,  he  says,  are  stained  with 
indecency  from  head  to  foot;  they  are  gluttonous  in  their 
meals,  drunken  in  their  drink,  luxurious  in  their  unchastity, 
wantonly  following  their  lusts,  fond  of  disreputable  society, 
frequenting  taverns  and  keeping  concubines  ;  they  hurry  from 
the  bed  of  fornication  to  the  holy  altar,  and  receive  the  body 
of  Christ  with  those  lips  which  have  just  been  kissing  a  harlot.^ 
Saint  Catharine  of  Siena  gives  a  picture  of  the  Italian 
priests  and  prelates,  '  whose  lives  are  founded  in  self-love, 
and  who  perform  the  office  of  devils.  Avarice,  lust,  and 
pride  are  the  masters  that  they  serve.  The  table  of  the 
Cross  is  deserted  for  the  sake  of  the  tavern  ;  the  poor  are  left 
destitute,  while  the  substance  of  the  Church  is  squandered  on 
harlots.  Nay,  more,  the  leprosy  of  unnatural  vice,  the  sin 
from  which  even  the  devils  flee  in  horror  because  of  their 
angelical  nature,  has  contaminated  their  minds  and  bodies. 
The  priests  celebrate  Mass  after  a  night  of  sin,  and  often 
their  mistresses  and  children  join  the  congregation  ;  others 
use  the  Blessed  Sacrament  of  the  altar  to  make  love- charms 
to  seduce  the  little  sheep  of  their  flock,  or  persuade  them  to 
commit  fornication  under  pretext  of  delivering  them  from 
diabolical  possession.'^  Jean  Gerson  is  very  fervent  against 
the  unnatural  vices  of  the  clergy,  as  also  against  those  priests 
who  threatened,  if  their  concubines  were  taken  from  them,  to 
fall  on  the  wives  and  daughters  of  their  parishioners.^  So 
scandalous  were  their  lives  that  in  some  parts  of  France  a 
priest  was  held  viler  than  a  Jew.^  Marsiglio  of  Padua 
complained  of  the  parish  priests  as  unlearned  and  ignorant 
of  grammar  :  they  were  generally  men  of  humble  birth,  poor, 
and  uneducated  ;  but  the  majority  probably  knew  some 
Latin,  for  they  could  not  have  done  their  work  otherwise. 
They  were  usually  underpaid,  and  in  Germany  some  abandoned 
their  flocks  and  took  to  beggary  as  more  lucrative.  It  is 
small  wonder  that  the  parish  priest,  considering  his  wretched 
lot,  too  often  filled  up  his  time  with  dice  and  drinking.  The 
cure  of  souls   was  commonly  regarded  as  a  mere  source  of 

1  Tschackert,  12.  ^  Gardner,  361. 

^  Schwab,  690,  697.  ■•  Lavisse,  ill.  ii.  360. 


THE  HOI.Y  ROMAN  CHURCH        75 

income,  and  the  temptation  was  strong  to  desert  the  dull 
parish,  with  its  houses  far  asunder,  and  to  resort  to  some 
large  town,  there  to  sing  private  masses  or  to  act  as  chantry 
priests.  This  tendency  was  increased  by  the  distress  conse- 
quent on  the  Black  Death. 

'  Persones  and  Parisch  prestes  playneth  to  heore  Bischops, 
That  heore  Parisch  hath  ben  pore  seththe  the  Pestilence  tymej 
And  asketh  leue  and  lycence  at  Londun  to  dwelle, 
To  singe  ther  for  Simonye  for  seluer  is  swete.' 

In  our  own  country  it  is  clear  that  the  parish  priests  were 
both  good  and  bad.  Some  were  of  holy  thought  and  work, 
like  Chaucer's  poor  parson,  whose  business  it  was  '  to  drawen 
folk  to  heven  by  fairnesse  by  good  ensample." 

*  He  wayted  after  no  pompe  and  reverence, 
Ne  maked  him  a  spyced  conscience, 
But  Cristes  lore,  and  his  apostles  twelve, 
He  taughte,  and  first  he  folwed  it  himselve.' 

On  the  other  hand,  there  were  many  others  who  failed  to  give 
example  by  their  own  cleanness  how  their  sheep  should  live  ; 
who  left  their  flock  encumbered  in  the  mire,  while  they  '  ran 
to  London,  unto  seynt  Poules,'  to  look  for  one  of  the 
thirty-five  chantries  there  established.  There  were  full  many 
priests  like  Sloth  in  the  Vision,  who  knew  not  his  Paternoster 
nor  the  history  of  Our  Lord  and  Our  Lady,  but  who  knew 
the  rhymes  of  Robin  Hood  and  of  Randolf,  Earl  of  Chester ; 
who  made  forty  vows  to-day  and  forgot  them  all  on  the 
morrow,  who  were  never  right  sorry  for  their  sins,  but  spent 
each  day  at  the  ale,  full  seldom  thinking  of  '  Goddes  peyne 
and  his  passioun.'  This  parson  boasts  of  his  dishonesty,  his 
drunkenness,  his  ingratitude,  his  lechery. 

'  "  I  lie,"  he  says,  "abedde  in  lenten  an  my  leman  in  myn  armes 
Tyl  matynes  and  masse  be  do,  and  thanne  go  to  the  freres ; 
Come  I  to  he,  missa  est  I  holde  me  yserued. 
I  nam  noughte  shryuen  some  tyme  but  if  sekenesse  it  make. 
Nought  tweies  in  two  yere  and  thanne  up  gesse  I  schryue  me. 
I  have  be  prest  and  parsoun  passynge  thretti  wynter, 
Yete  can  I  neither  solfe  ne  synge  ne  seyntes  lyues  rede. 
But  I  can  fynde  in  a  felde  or  in  a  fourlonge  an  hare."  ' 

The  parochial  system   in  England  on  its  religious  side  was 
clearly  in  a  parlous  state.      To  us  nowadays  it  is  no  less  clear 


76       IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

that  the  whole  secular  side  of  the  Church  called  for  urgent 
reform.  To-day  we  attack  systems,  but  are  chary  of  attacking 
individuals  ;  five  hundred  years  ago  the  reverse  was  the  case. 
Men  were  never  tired  of  exposing  the  vices,  the  sensuality,  the 
utter  unworthiness  of  the  clergy,  but  they  dared  not  attack  the 
priesthood  nor  the  papal  system  ;  there  was  but  one  Church, 
and  the  only  hope  of  salvation  lay  through  its  portals. 

The  monasteries  also  by  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century 
had  fallen  on  evil  times ;  they  had  outgrown  their  original 
sphere  of  utility  and  had  lost  much  of  their  original  good 
repute.  Intended  as  a  home  of  refuge  from  the  murder, 
rapine,  and  bloody  war  around,  for  those  peaceful  souls  who 
were  content  in  choir,  chapter,  and  cloister  to  observe  the 
vows  of  chastity,  poverty,  and  obedience,  to  live  by  the  rule 
of  the  order,  to  seek  after  righteousness  and  godliness,  their 
very  success  had  been  their  bane.  They  had  flourished,  and 
had  manifestly  come  near  attaining  the  ends  for  which  they 
were  started ;  whereupon  kings  had  endowed  them,  nobles 
had  made  over  to  them  lands  and  churches,  death-bed  dona- 
tions and  legacies  had  enriched  them  until  they  became 
possessed  of  one-third  or  one-half  of  the  vicarages  in  the 
kingdom.  The  vow  of  poverty  was  lost  sight  of;  that  of 
obedience  followed  suit.  The  monasteries  everywhere  got 
themselves  for  a  price  emancipated  from  episcopal  control 
and  put  immediately  under  the  aegis  of  the  Pope  ;  before  this 
time  Bishop  Grosseteste  had  much  ti'ouble  with  the  Gilber- 
tines  and  the  Austin  Canons,  the  Cistercians  having  already 
escaped  from  his  jurisdiction.^  The  vow  of  chastity  might 
be  observed,  although  Saint  Catharine  complained  that 
prelates  connived  at  infamous  monks  corrupting  the  nuns  in 
the  monasteries  under  their  chai'ge.-  Even  at  the  beginning 
of  the  fifteenth  century  the  monasteries  w^ere  generally  of  good 
moral  repute  ;  but  they  had  become  social  homes,  and  the 
best  monks  were  '  good  clubbable  men.'  They  had  naturally 
fallen  in  popular  esteem,  and  the  tide  of  popular  benevolence 
no  longer  flowed  as  formerly  ;  the  time  when  they  were  noted 
for  their  learning  and  influence,  the  days  of  Lanfranc  and 
Anselm,  had  long  since  passed  ;  no  new  endowments  came  in, 
'  Stevenson,  150.  -  Gardner,  362. 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  CHURCH    77 

and   gifts  of  moiiev  became  scantier  and  scantier.      Some  of 
the    convents    had    overbuilt    themselves,    others    had    over- 
bought ;    some   had  indulged    too   freely  in    litigation,  others 
complained  that  their  hospitality  cost  them  too   dear.      The 
fact  was   that   the  monks  themselves   had   fallen   from    their 
former   high   estate  ;   the  Carthusians,  with   their  strict  rule, 
still    maintained  model    monasteries,  and  the   Austin    Canons 
came  next  to  them  ;  ^   but  the  conventual    life    generally  had 
become    more    earthly    and    self-centred.       The    monks    said 
openly  that  the  old  Benedictine  rule  was  no   longer   possible 
of    observance;    the    Cluniac    revival    had    degenerated    into 
laxity  and  outward  splendour  ;  the  Cistercians,  formerly  the 
'  sour  Puritans  of  the  cloister,'  had   long  ago   become   high- 
minded   and    purse-proud.        In    Germany    the    Benedictine 
abbeys,  ever  the  most  popular,  were  largely  used  as  resting- 
places  and  harbours  of  refuge  for  those  unfit   for  the  war  of 
life.      Merchants  sent  their  paralytic  or  maimed  children,  the 
idiots  and  the  half-wits,  the  idle  and  the  thriftless,  those  for 
any  reason  unfit  for  marriage,  to  the  convent,  and  supported 
them  while  there ;    nobles  in  similar   fashion  got  rid  of  those 
members  of  their  households  who  were  weak  i)i   body  or  in 
mind.^      Indeed   so   thoroughly    was   the    good   old    rule,   of 
making  due  provision   for  the   fool    of  the   family,  observed, 
that  some  of  the  convents  became  little  better  than  lunatic 
asylums,    and    there    remained    in   them    no    one  capable    of 
continuing  the   history  of  the    abbey.      The  Cistercians   and 
the  Austin  Canons  in  Germany  were,  however,  in  better  case. 
In  England  married  men,  wearied  of  matrimony,  occasionally 
left  their  wives  and   betook   themselves  to  monasteries  to  end 
their  days  in  peace.^    The  monks  still  taught  in  their  schools, 
but  their  own  younger  members  only ;   they  still  maintained 
their  hospitals,  but  they  received  no  sick  folk   from  outside ; 
they  copied  and  illuminated  manuscripts,  but  their  interest  in 
history  was  dying  out.     Their   lands   were   leased  to  tenant 
farmers,  and  they  no  longer  tried  new  methods  of  agriculture 
or   imported   fresh    products ;    '  their    hospitality   was    being 
shifted   on   the   shoulders   of    the   neighbouring    inns;    their 
almsgiving    took    the   most   wasteful    and    unwise    forms    of 
1  Grube,  6.  ^  jf^id,  6.  ^  Stevenson,  153. 


78       IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

indiscriminate  doles.'  ^  The  monks  lived  a  thoroughly  selfish 
life,  removed  from  the  haunts  of  men  ;  they  loved  their  ease 
and  preferred  their  own  comfort  even  to  the  good  name  and 
fame  of  their  abbey.  When  the  first  Prior  of  Grammont 
died  and  his  body  began  to  work  miracles,  his  successor,  who 
could  not  abide  the  crowds  of  unmannerly  louts  attracted 
round  the  quiet  convent  walls,  threatened  to  dig  him  up  and 
throw  his  bones  in  the  river,  if  he  did  not  cease  his  idle 
miracles  ;  the  threat  worked,  the  miracles  ceased,  the  monks 
lived  in  quiet  peace  again.^  The  monks  in  France  were 
worse  than  those  in  Germany.  Henry  of  Hesse  alleges  that 
they  were  debauched,  and  that  their  monasteries  were  no 
better  than  inns  and  brothels.  Nicolas  de  Clamanges  states 
that  so  far  from  being  examples  to  the  secular  clergy  they 
were  in  every  way  more  worldly,  more  abandoned,  more 
immoral ;  that  there  was  nothing  they  hated  so  much  as  their 
cloister  and  the  rule  of  their  Order.^  In  England  the  abbot 
loved  hunting  and  kept  hounds,  he  loved  hawking  and  kept 
falcons;  the  monks  loved  good  cheer  and  good  wine.  The 
monk  among  the  Canterbury  pilgrims,  '  to  been  an  abbot 
able,"  was  '  full  fat  and  in  good  point ' ;  he  loved  venery — 

'Grehoundes  he  hadde,  as  swifte  as  fowel  iu  flight ; 
Of  priking  and  of  hunting  for  the  hare 
Was  al  his  lust,  for  no  coste  wolde  he  spare.' 

The  nunneries  in  Germany,  although  they  shared  many  of 
the  faults  of  the  monasteries,  were  generally  superior  to  them 
both  in  morality  and  intelligence.  No  attempt,  however,  was 
made  to  keep  up  the  vow  of  poverty ;  in  most  cloisters  a 
noble's  or  a  citizen's  daughter  was  only  admitted  on  payment 
of  a  fixed  sum  ;  in  others  she  brought  her  kitchen  and  table 
with  her ;  in  others  no  vows  were  taken.  There  were, 
however,  many  exceptions.^  The  frivolity  of  the  nuns  of 
Cologne  shocked  a  French  observer.  The  nunneries  in  some 
parts  had  an  evil  reputation :  their  inmates  wore  costly 
clothes,  took  part  in  all  merriments,  danced  round  dances  in 
the  streets  and  at  the  drinking-houses  :  their  doors  stood 
open,  day  and  night,  to  clerk  and  layman  alike.^     The  nuns 

1  Capes,  288.  2  Lea,  i.  38.  ^  Gratius,  ij.  564. 

•*  Grube,  7,  8.  *  Lindner  {H.  and  L.),  ii.  249. 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  CHURCH    79 

of  Bologna  were  notoriously  light  of  love  ;  they  condescended 
to  rag-pickers  and  carders.^  Saint  Brigitta  complained  that 
the  nunneries  were  rather  brothels  than  holy  retreats.^ 
Nicolas  de  Clanianges  says  that  the  truth  forbids  him  to 
speak,  '  necnon  de  coetu  virghium  Deo  dicatarum,  sed  magis 
de  lupanaribus,  de  dolis  Sf  procacia  meretrkum,  de  stupris 
Sf  incestuosis  ojieribus — nam  quid  ohsecro  al'md  sunt  hoc 
tempore  puellarum  monasteria,  nisi  quaedam,  non  dico  Dei 
sanctiiaria  sed  Veneris  execranda  prostibula,  sed  lascivorum 
c^  impudicorum  javenum  ad  lihidines  explendas  receptacida, 
ut  idem  hodie  sit  puellam  velare  quod  <^  puhlice  ad  scor- 
tandum  eaponere.''  ^ 

But  the  chief  offenders  were  the  friars  of  the  Four  Orders  ; 
Gerhard  Groot  and  Wyclif  alike  condemned  them  :  they  had 
been  beautiful  in  their  inception,  they  were  baneful  in  their 
decay.  They  afforded  a  marked  example  of  the  rule,  which 
has  so  often  been  exemplified  in  the  history  of  the  Church, 
that  '  it  is  the  reforming  organisations  which  have  lost  their 
meaning  that  become  the  chief  abuses  in  the  world's  history.'  * 
Two  hundred  years  had  not  elapsed  since  Dominic  first  sent 
forth  his  preachers  to  teach  the  truth,  since  Francis  sent  forth 
his  disciples  with  messages  of  love  to  the  poor  and  outcast, 
the  sick  and  leprous.  They  had  dwelt  among  the  poorest 
and  meanest  in  the  towns,  in  a  '  dense  slough  of  stagnant 
misery,  squalor,  famine,  loathsome  disease,  and  dull  despair 
such  as  the  worst  slums  of  London,  Paris,  or  Liverpool  know 
nothing  of ';^  or  outside  the  city  walls  in  pestilential  marshes 
where  the  refugees  from  the  country  pitched  their  huts.^ 
They  had  lived  with  the  lowliest ;  they  had  won  the  hearts 
of  all.  But  as  their  influence  increased,  so  did  their 
prosperity.  Peckham  and  Bradwardine,  Archbishops  of 
Canterbury,  were  Franciscan  and  Dominican  ;  the  Franciscans, 
nourished  by  Grosseteste,  won  over  Simon  de  Montfort  to 
become  an  English  patriot.  The  celebrated  Doctor  Albert 
the  Great  was  a  Dominican  ;  Alexander  of  Hales  was  a  Fran- 
ciscan ;    Saint    Thomas   Aquinas,   the   greatest   glory   of  the 

1  Frati,  95.  ^  Lea,  i.  635.  ^  Gratius,  ii.  566. 

*  Creighton,  Historical  LecHires  and  Addresses,  72. 

'  Jessop,  Coining  of  the  Friars,  6.  *  Creighton,  op.  cit.  107. 


80       IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

schoolmen,  was  a  Dominican.  But  the  friars  of  the  latter 
part  of  the  fourteenth  century  were  not  as  those  of  the 
thirteenth.  In  the  early  part  of  the  century  indeed  they 
maintained  their  hold  over  all  classes.  The  marked  contrast 
which  their  renunciation  and  shabby  dress  exhibited  to  the 
worldliness,  the  gambling,  the  hunting  of  the  secular  clergy, 
the  greater  influence  over  the  lives  of  the  citizens  which  the 
friaries  amid  their  busy  haunts  of  men  exercised  as  compared 
with  the  secluded  convents  of  the  Benedictines  and  Cistercians, 
above  all,  their  gospel  of  the  holiness  of  poverty,  endeared 
them  to  the  lower  ranks  of  society.  At  the  General  Congre- 
gation of  the  Franciscans  in  Paris  in  1329,  whenever  a  bare- 
footed friar  arose  to  preach  the  doctrine  of  Apostolic  Poverty, 
the  common  people  heard  him  gladly.  During  the  terrible 
time  of  the  Black  Death  in  England,  in  Languedoc  and  else- 
where, the  friars  stuck  to  their  work  manfully,  and  thousands 
of  them  died  at  their  posts.  They  were  the  spiritual  guides 
of  the  Flemish  artisans  at  Courtrai  and  Roosebeke,  as  they 
were  of  the  English  peasantry  who  rose  in  the  insurrection  of 
1381.  But  the  majority  of  the  friars  gradually  abandoned 
their  early  ideals,  they  sank  to  a  lower  level  of  life  and 
morality.  In  Bohemia,  where  education  was  more  widely 
diffused  than  in  most  other  countries,  the  popular  feeling 
against  the  Mendicants  was  probably  more  bitter  than  else- 
where.^ The  Dominicans  fell  into  disrepute  with  the  ortho- 
dox because  they  denied  the  Immaculate  Conception  of  the 
Blessed  Virgin,  the  Franciscans  because  they  set  themselves 
up  against  the  Pope  and  ordinary  Christians  as  the  champions 
of  Apostolic  Poverty.  The  Spiritual  Franciscans  throughout, 
and  the  Observants  from  1373,  held  to  the  stricter  vow  of 
poverty  and  to  the  poorer  and  more  squalid  form  of  dress ; 
but  the  great  bulk  of  the  Franciscan  Friars  made  no  difficulty 
in  accepting  property ;  while  in  dress,  if  their  circumstances 
allowed,  they  made  no  shame  to  assume  a  garb  '  full  and 
double  and  resplendent  and  of  the  finest  stuff,  and  of  a  fashion 
goodly  and  pontifical.'  ^  The  lewd  fellows  of  the  baser  sort 
among  them  were  always  ready  to  brawl  and  quarrel,  drawing 
their  knives  with  fatal  results ;  fourteen  were  thus  killed  in  a 
brawl  at  Assisi  itself.^ 

*  Palacky,  in.  i.  158.  "  Decameron,  i.  222.  ^  Gardner,  112, 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  CHURCH    81 

With  the  secular  clergy  the  regulars  were  everywhere  in 
hopeless  conflict ;  if  the  monks  had  tried  to  shift  too  much 
work  to  the  shoulders  of  the  seculars,  the  friai's  tried  to  take 
too  much  from  them  ;  they  encroached  on  their  preserves, 
and  filched  from  them  the  offerings  of  the  faithful.  They 
had  obtained  the  right  to  carry  about  portable  altars  for  the 
celebration  of  the  Mass,  the  right  also  to  preach  in  parish 
churches  and  to  hear  confessions.  Their  sermons  often 
contained  little  but  spicy  jests  and  humorous  anecdotes ;  and 
their  confessionals  were  the  resort,  as  Wyclif  complained,  of 
every  accursed  perjurer,  extortioner,  and  adulterer  who  was 
afraid  to  go  to  his  own  curate  to  be  shriven.  The  temptation 
to  a  wealthy  man  was  great  to  forsake  his  own  parish  priest, 
who  knew  too  much  of  his  livelihood,  and  to  go  to  a  wanton, 
merry  friar  who  would  certainly  have  given  him  absolution 
for  a  consideration  ;  for  the  friar 

'  Ful  swetely  herde  confessioun, 
And  plesaunt  was  his  absolucioun  ; 
He  was  an  esy  man  to  yeve  penaunce 
Ther  as  he  wiste  to  hau  a  good  pitaunce.' 

The  friars  owned  no  superior  but  the  Pope,  with  whom  their 
Minister-General  resided  in  close  connection  ;  they  were  the 
most  powerful  agents  of  the  Papacy,  its  deftest,  ubiquitous 
agents.  On  their  behalf  it  must  be  remembered  that  they 
did  not  live  in  seclusion  like  the  monks ;  they  dwelt  amid 
the  hum  and  stress  of  men,  within  the  towns  and  cities,  or 
close  outside  the  walls,  open  to  the  censure  of  the  municipal 
fathers,  exposed  to  the  prying  gaze  of  a  thousand  curious 
eyes ;  their  vices,  as  their  virtues,  were  seen  and  known  of  all 
men.  As  they  fell  off  from  their  primitive  simplicity  and 
became  engrossed  in  piling  up  money  for  the  Pope  and  their 
order,  as  the  truth  which  they  preached  became  gradually 
mere  dead  words  uttered  by  rote,  so  did  their  influence  turn 
to  evil  and  increase  until  it  became  overpowering.  The 
Franciscans  had  always  been  the  newsmongers  in  the  village, 
and  welcome  in  every  tavern  ;  they  soon  began  to  haunt  the 
inns  and  to  leave  the  poor  unheeded  ;  they 

'  Knew  the  tavernes  wel  in  every  toun, 
And  everich  hostiler  and  tappestere 
Bet  than  a  lazar  or  a  beggestere. ' 
F 


82       IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

By  the  close  of  the  fourteenth  century  they  had  become 
contemned  and  hated  by  all  classes  in  all  countries  alike.  In 
Italy  they  were  despised  as  cheats,  thieves,  fornicators,  and 
workers  of  sham  miracles  ;  ^  everywhere  they  emptied  the 
parish  churches  and  corrupted  the  holy  Catholic  religion. 
They  played  on  the  follies  and  weaknesses  of  the  rustic  and 
the  ignorant ;  their  sale  of  spurious  relics  fostered  supersti- 
tion, and  the  easy  terms  on  which  they  granted  absolution 
encouraged  crime.      As  a  song-writer  said — 

'  All  wickedness  that  men  can  tell 
Reigneth  them  among  ; 
There  shall  no  soul  have  room  in  hell, 
Of  friars  there  is  such  throng.' 

They  had  originally  been  the  evangelists  of  truth  and  good- 
will ;  they  had  sunk  to  be  propagandists  of  superstition  and 


crime. 


(3)  Heresy  and  Reform 

Already  in  the  twelfth  century,  although  there  was  much 
blind  faith  and  superstition  on  the  Continent,  there  was  much 
heresy,  which  was  fostered,  if  it  was  not  created,  by  the  vices 
of  the  clergy.  It  appeared  not  in  the  schools  and  among 
the  learned,  but  among  men  and  women  of  humble  origin 
and  of  plain  living  and  thinking.  In  almost  every  case  it  was 
anti-sacerdotal ;  the  leading  arguments  of  the  heretics  were 
drawn  from  the  pride,  the  avarice,  the  unclean  lives  of  their 
spiritual  masters ;  ^  they  held  the  old  Donatist  tenet  that 
the  sacraments  are  polluted  in  polluted  hands ;  they  refused 
to  accept  the  decision  of  Pope  Gregory  the  Ninth  distin- 
guishing between  the  offices  of  the  priest  in  mortal  sin  as 
regards  himself  and  as  regards  others.  This  article  of  their 
creed  had  a  long  and  stubborn  life,  for  it  was  common  to  the 
followers  of  Peter  Waldo,  of  John  Wyclif,  and  of  John  Hus. 
There  were  scores  of  heretical  sects  in  Italy.  In  the  north 
of  Germany  false  Christs  and  false  prophets  appeared  ;  the 
Publicani  or  Paulicians  were  sent  over  thence  by  King  Henry 
the  Second  to   Oxford   for  examination.      In   Brittany  arose 

^  Buickhardt,  460.  '~  Lea,  i.  61. 


THE  HOI.Y  ROMAN  CHURCH         83 

Eon  of  the  Star,  '  he  who  should  come  to  judf^e  the  quick  and 
the  dead,'  who  was  worshipped  by  his  followers  as  the  Deity 
incarnate ;  he,  however,  was  probably  mad,  Pierre  de 
Bruys  preached  in  Vallonise  and  in  Gascony ;  Henry,  the 
Monk  of  Lausanne,  at  Le  Mans  ;  the  influence  of  the  Italian, 
Gundulf,  extended  to  Arras.  Arnold  of  Brescia,  like  Wyclif 
after  him,  preached  the  doctrine  of  apostolic  poverty  ;  the 
clergy  should  have  no  possessions,  the  Church  should  have 
no  civil  jurisdiction,  but  should  confine  itself  strictly  to  its 
spiritual  functions. 

The  Albigenses,  known  in  Italy  as  the  Patarines  and 
elsewhere  as  the  Cathari,  can  hardly  be  called  a  Christian 
sect ;  they  were  the  descendants  of  the  Paulicians,  and 
were  of  Manichasan  tendency.  Paul  of  Samosata  had  lived 
in  the  seventh  century  ;  his  followers  had  been  established  in 
Armenia,  Pontus,  and  Cappadocia.  They  had  resisted  the 
persecution  of  Leo  the  Armenian  and  the  'sanguinary  devotion 
of  Theodora  "■ ;  in  the  middle  of  the  ninth  century  they  had 
been  transferred  '  from  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates  to 
Constantinople  and  Thrace,'  where  they  were  allowed  to  live 
in  peace  and  to  serve  in  the  armies  of  the  Eastern  Empire. 
'  In  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century  their  Pope  or 
Primate  resided  on  the  confines  of  Bulgaria,  Croatia,  and 
Dalmatia,  and  governed  by  his  vicars  the  filial  congregations 
of  Italy  and  France.'  ^  They  believed  in  the  New  Testament, 
but  disbelieved  the  Old ;  Jehovah  was  Satan,  and  the 
prophets  and  patriarchs  were  robbers.  The  spiritual  world 
and  the  mind  of  man  were  made  by  God,  but  Satan  made 
the  temporal  world  and  matter.  The  Albigenses  therefore 
refused  to  eat  flesh  ;  they  rejected  the  doctrine  of  the  Mass  ; 
they  held  that  baptism  profited  nothing  ;  and  thev  disbelieved 
utterly  in  carnal  marriage.  As  regards  the  Saviour  of  man- 
kind, many  of  them  reverted  to  the  old  heresy  of  the  Docetes, 
that  Christ,  the  imperfections  of  matter  being  incompatible 
with  the  purity  of  a  celestial  substance,  had  never  issued 
from  the  Virgin's  womb;  that  'He  had  imposed  on  the  senses 
of  His  enemies  and  of  His  disciples ;  and  that  the  ministers 
of  Pilate  had  wasted  their  impotent  rage  on  an  airy  phantom, 
'  Gibbon,  vii.  56. 


84      IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

who  seemed  to  expire  on  the  Cross  and  after  three  days  to 
arise  from  the  dead.'  ^  Catharism  discarded  all  the  machinery 
of  the  Catholic  Church,  replacing  it  by  a  simple  daily  bene- 
diction of  the  bread  and  wine,  by  a  monthly  ceremony  of 
confession,  and  by  the  Baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  which 
reunited  the  soul  to  God,  absolved  it  from  sin,  and  distin- 
guished the  '  perfected  '  from  the  ordinary  Christian."  This 
ceremony  consisted  merely  in  the  imposition  of  hands, 
and,  except  in  the  case  of  those  who  proposed  to  become 
ministers  of  the  faith,  it  was  usually  postponed  until  death 
drew  very  nigh.  The  sick  man  then  generally  remained 
without  food  for  three  days,  and  this  '  privation  '  was  usually 
equivalent  to  suicide.  Through  Provence  and  Lombardy 
these  latter-day  Manichtieans  abounded.  It  may  seem  strange 
that  so  sad  a  creed  should  have  won  so  many  converts,  should 
have  induced  so  many  to  lead  lives  of  truth  and  purity ;  but 
the  Cathari  had  rejected  Catholicism  because  its  precepts 
and  practice  were  to  them  irreconcilably  at  variance,  while 
their  o^vn  simple  dualistic  creed  fitted  in  with  and  explained 
the  facts  of  their  own  dull,  hard  lives.  Not  happiness,  but 
truth,  they  held,  should  make  them  free. 

There  were  other  heretics  whose  chief  desire  and  aim  it 
was  to  remain  faithful  to  the  spirit  of  Christ  and  to  revert  to 
the  simplicity  of  the  primitive  Church.  Chief  among  these 
were  the  Waldenses,  the  followers  of  Peter  Waldo,  who  were 
known  as  the  Poor  Men  of  Lyons.  Originally  of  no  heretical 
tendency,  they  were  enamoured  of  the  beauty  of  poverty 
and  of  the  simplicity  of  the  Gospel.  They  translated  several 
books  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments ;  they  produced  in 
the  Gallo-Roman  language  a  text  and  a  gloss  on  the  Psalter. 
Armed  with  these,  two  of  the  Waldenses  presented  them- 
selves in  the  Lateran  Council  before  Pope  Alexander  the  Third. 
He,  less  wise  than  Innocent  the  Third  after  him,  while  he 
approved  of  their  poverty,  refused  them  permission  to  preach 
without  the  consent  of  their  clergy,  and  condemned  their 
interference  with  the  sacred  functions  of  the  priesthood. 
They  were  thus  driven  into  hostility  and  opposition  to 
the  Church.  They  had  formed  the  conviction  that  it  was 
^  Gibbon,  hi.  49.  -  Lea,  i.  93. 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  CHURCH    85 

the  sanctity  of  a  man's  life,  and  not  his  mere  spiritual  office, 
which  gave  validity  to  his  administration  of  holy  rites ;  a 
virtuous  layman,  or  even  a  virtuous  woman,  could  officiate, 
while  the  offering  of  a  vicious  priest  was  of  no  avail.  Tran- 
substantiation,  they  held,  takes  place  only  in  the  soul  of  the 
believer.  They  rejected  prayers  for  the  dead,  purgatory,  and 
indulgences.  No  fairer  testimony  to  their  moral  worth 
could  be  given  than  that  of  an  inquisitor  who  knew  them 
well.  '  Heretics,'  he  says,  '  are  recognisable  by  their  customs 
and  speech,  for  they  are  modest  and  well  regulated.  They 
take  no  pride  in  their  garments,  which  are  neither  costly  nor 
vile.  They  do  not  engage  in  trade,  to  avoid  lies  and  oaths 
and  frauds,  but  live  by  their  labour  as  mechanics — their 
teachers  are  cobblers.  They  do  not  accumulate  wealth,  but 
are  content  with  necessaries.  They  are  chaste  and  temperate 
in  meat  and  drink.  They  do  not  frequent  taverns  or  dances 
or  other  vanities.  They  restrain  themselves  from  anger. 
They  are  always  at  work ;  they  teach  and  learn,  and  conse- 
quently pray  but  little.  They  are  to  be  known  by  their 
modesty  and  precision  of  speech,  avoiding  scurrility  and 
detraction  and  light  words  and  lies  and  oaths.' ^  The 
modesty,  frugality,  honest  industry,  chastity,  and  temperance 
of  the  Poor  Men  of  Lyons  were  universally  acknowledged. 

It  is  very  probable  that  some  account  of  the  teaching  of 
the  Waldenses  may  have  been  transmitted  to  Saint  Francis 
of  Assisi  by  his  father,  who  was  a  travelling  merchant  of 
considerable  wealth  and  intelligence.  The  '  little  brother ' 
Francis  was  perhaps  the  most  saintly  man  who  had  trod  this 
earth  since  the  death  of  his  Elder  Brother  on  the  Cross.  He 
believed  in  absolute  poverty  and  the  love  of  Christ,  and 
throug-h  the  whole  of  his  short  life — for  he  died  in  1226 — 
he  carried  his  belief  in  the  holiness  of  poverty  to  its  logical 
conclusion.  He  preached  the  love  of  God ;  he  did  not 
argue ;  he  detested  polemics  ;  his  life  was  his  gospel.  The 
truth,  says  M.  Sabatier,^  needs  no  proof ;  it  forces  itself  on 
you.  So  it  was  with  Saint  Francis  ;  his  life  and  example  con- 
verted men  from  the  error  of  their  ways.  For  a  time  it 
seemed  as  if  heresy  would  disappear.  But  his  gospel  in  its 
1  Lea,  i.  85.  "  Sabatier,  51. 


86       IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

purity  did  not  retain  the  undisputed  field  long.  When  the 
Little  Brother  presented  his  rule  to  Innocent  the  Third,  the 
Pope  warned  him  that  it  would  be  too  hard  for  those  who 
should  come  after  him.^  The  warning  proved  true.  Scarcely 
was  the  Saint  dead  than  his  followers  divided  into  two  sects — 
the  Spiritual  Franciscans,  who  desired  to  adhere  to  the  letter 
of  the  rule  as  to  utter  poverty  ;  and  the  Conventuals,  who  saw 
how  much  could  be  done  with  property  rightly  administered. 
For  more  than  a  century  the  strife  between  these  sects  con- 
tinued. One  general  of  the  Order  was  a  Spiritual,  the  next 
was  a  Conventual ;  the  Popes  now  favoured  one  sect,  now  the 
other.  Nicholas  the  Third  promulgated  a  Bull,  E.vnt  qui 
seminat,  laying  down  that  property  should  be  vested  in  the 
Roman  Church,  the  usufruct  remaining  with  the  friars. 
About  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century  the  Spiritual 
Franciscans  adopted  the  mystical  teachings  of  the  Calabrian 
prophet,  Joachim  of  Flora.  His  three  treatises  were  styled 
The  Everlasting  Gospel,  and  to  them  the  Franciscan,  Gerard 
of  Borgo  San  Donnino,  published  an  Introduction.  Joachim"'s 
speculative  prophecies  had  been  mystical  and  vague ;  those 
of  Gerard  were  clear  and  precise.  The  reign  of  the  Father 
was  over ;  the  reign  of  the  Son  was  closing ;  the  reign  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  was  to  begin  in  the  year  1260.  The  Roman 
Church,  which  was  further  from  the  truth  than  were  the 
Greeks,  the  Jews,  or  the  Musalmans,  would  be  swept  away 
in  favour  of  an  order  of  monks.^  This  was  rank  heresy. 
Persecution,  spasmodic  and  intermittent,  followed  ;  John  of 
Parma  was  disgraced,  Gerard  was  imprisoned  underground. 
But  the  sect,  with  its  mystical  teachings,  taken  often  from 
works  falsely  attributed  to  Joachim  of  Flora,  held  its  ground 
throughout  the  fourteenth  century  up  to  the  days  of  the 
Calabrian  hermit,  Telesphoro  of  Cosenza,  and  of  Thomas  of 
Apulia,  and  even  later.  The  tertiary  order  of  the  Franciscans 
continued  to  be  the  breeding-ground  for  all  manner  of  strange 
heresies,  which  lived  their  little  day  and  died.^  Wilhelmina 
of  Bohemia  appeared  at  Milan ;  she  was  held  to  be  an 
incarnation  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  her  followers  believed  that 
she  would  reappear  on  earth  at  the  year  of  Jubilee,  1300. 
*  Sabatier,  no.  -  Renan,  283  ei  seq.  ^  Ibid.  310. 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  CHURCH    87 

She   died    in  the  odour  of  sanctity,  but  twenty  years  later 
her  bones  were  dug  up  and  burned.      In   1260,  the  year  of 
the  new  dispensation,   was   born  Segarelli,  who   founded   the 
sect  of  the  ApostoHc  Brethren,  and  who  strove  to  surpass 
Saint   Francis    himself  in   his   imitation   of  Christ.      He  got 
himself  circumcised,   was  wrapped  in   swaddling-clothes,  was 
rocked  in  a  cradle  and  suckled   by  a  woman.     When   he  had 
perished  at  the  stake,  his  work  was  taken  up  by  Fra  Dolcino 
of  Novara,  who  published  his  three  epistles,  and  who  declared 
the  Papacy  to  be  the  Scarlet  Woman  of  the  Revelation.     He 
had  a  spiritual  sister,  the  beautiful  Margarita   of  Tirol,  with 
whom  he  claimed  to  live  in  unblemished  chastity.      Clement 
the    Fifth    issued    a  Bull    against    them ;   Dolcino    and   his 
followers    took    to    the    mountains ;    four    crusades    in    four 
successive    years    were    sent    against   them    in    Mount    Saint 
Bernard  and  the   neighbouring  Alps.     At  length,   on   Holy 
Thursday  of  Passion    Week,   1307,   Fra   Dolcino   was    cap- 
tured and  was  put  to  death  with  the  most  atrocious  tortures. 
But  the  sect  of  longest  life  which  sprang  from  the  Franciscans 
was  that  of  the  Fraticelli,  who  wore  the  small  hoods  and  the 
short  narrow  gowns  of  the  Spiritual  Franciscans,  and  who, 
like   them,   preached   the   doctrine  of  utter   poverty.      Pope 
John    the    Twenty-second  did  his  utmost  to   suppress  them, 
for,   although    his    was   the  golden    age   of    missions    in   the 
East,  the  doctrine  of  the  poverty  of  Christ  and  His  apostles 
was  hateful  in  his   nostrils.^      He  contradicted  the  decisions 
of  his   predecessors,   and    promulgated    a  Bull    in   which   he 
proved  that  the  Franciscan  doctrine  of  poverty  was  a  per- 
version   of   Scripture,  and    in    which    it    was    denounced    as 
heretical.       The  Franciscan    friars,    headed  by  their  general 
Michael  de   Cesena,  rose  against  him  and  ranged   themselves 
under  the    banner    of    his    enemy,    the    Emperor    Louis    of 
Bavaria.       The   narrow    Franciscan    dogma   thus    became    of 
imperial  importance.     John's  successor,  Benedict  the  Twelfth, 
and   Clement  the  Sixth   after  him,  were   unable  to   suppress 
these  Brethren  of  the  Poor  Life,  as  they  called  themselves ; 
they  swarmed  through  Italy.      Cola  di  Rienzo,  when  he  fled 
from  Rome,  took  shelter  with  the  Fraticelli  of  Monte  Maiella; 

^  Lea,  iii.  133. 


88       IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCH.S 

Luigi  di  Durazzo,  when  he  rebelled,  proclaimed  his  sym- 
pathy with  them;  the  Archbishop  of  Seleucia  in  1346 
belonged  to  their  order ;  so  too  did  the  Bishop  of  Trivento 
in  1362.  The  Fraticelli  continued  to  be  numerous  in  Italy 
durins:  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries. 

Meantime  the  merciless  crusade  of  De  Montfort,  the 
preaching  of  Saint  Dominic  and  his  followers,  and  the 
pitiless  persecution  of  the  Inquisition  during  the  thirteenth 
century,  practically  annihilated  the  sect  of  the  Albigenses 
in  Southern  France.  The  country  was  impoverished,  its 
industry  was  shattered  and  its  commerce  ruined ;  the  estates 
of  the  nobles  and  the  goods  of  the  wealthy  were  wrung  from 
them  ;  ^  but,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  poverty-stricken 
Waldenses,  heresy  was  stamped  out  of  France.  The  subtle- 
ties of  Abelard  and  the  schoolmen  were  refuted  by  the 
erudition  and  arguments  of  that  noble  Dominican,  Thomas 
Aquinas  ;  and  thus  it  came  about  that,  as  Sismondi  says,^ 
whether  there  were  an  honest  man  or  not,  there  was  certainly 
at  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century  not  a  heretic  in  the 
whole  realm  of  France. 

In  the  Spanish  peninsula  also  there  was  very  little  heresy. 
A  few  Cathari  escaped  from  Languedoc  and  penetrated  as 
far  as  Leon  ;  a  few  Fraticelli  and  Waldenses  troubled  the 
universal  orthodoxy.  The  Inquisition  was  established  in 
Aragon,  and  worked  in  the  early  part  of  the  thirteenth  and 
again  in  the  opening  years  of  the  fourteenth  century,  but 
was  never  really  effective;  and  when,  in  1401,  Vincente  de 
Lisboa  was  appointed  Inquisitor  over  all  Spain,  the  only 
heresy  specifically  mentioned  in  the  Bull  is  the  idolatrous 
worship  of  plants,  trees,  stones,  and  altars  ^ — a  mere  super- 
stitious relic  of  paganisn. 

In  Italy,  however,  Lombardy,  with  Milan  as  its  centre, 
continued  throughout  to  be  the  home  of  heresy.  Not  only 
did  the  heretical  sects  of  the  Franciscans  flourish  there,  but 
other  heretics  also.  The  Waldenses  retreated  to  the  Cottian 
Alps.  The  Cathari,  when  they  fled  from  persecution  in 
Languedoc,  were  able  to  find  a  shelter  in  any  large  town  of 
Northern    Italy.      Ezzelino    da    Romano    would    permit    no 

'  Lea,  ii.  119.  ^  Sismondi  {F.),  xi.  442.  ^  Lea,  ii.  185. 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  CHUKCH    89 

persecution  for  heresy  in  his  dominions,  nor  would  his  con- 
queror, Uberto  Pallavicino,  after  him.  Heresy  spread  to 
Central  Italy,  but  political  faction  and  party  spirit  were 
everywhere  dominant ;  and  when  Saint  Peter  Martyr  won  two 
bloody  battles  in  Florence  for  the  Church  in  1245,  the 
victories  were  as  much  those  of  Guelfs  over  Ghibelines  as  of 
orthodoxy  over  heresy.  After  the  victory  of  Charles  of 
Anjou  at  Benevento  in  1268,  and  the  consequent  revival  of 
the  papal  power  through  Italy,  the  inquisitors  were  able  to 
set  to  work  with  more  gusto,  and  by  the  end  of  the  century 
heretics  were  no  longer  able  to  live  securely  in  Lombardy  or 
in  Central  Italy.  But  the  Inquisition  was  ineffective  in 
Naples  ;  it  was  merely  nominal  in  Sicily  ;  it  never  gained  a 
hold  in  Venetian  territory.  '  In  Italy  as  in  France,'  says 
Mr.  Lea,^  '  the  history  of  the  Inquisition  during  the  four- 
teenth and  fifteenth  centuries  is  one  of  decadence.'  It  had 
in  fact  for  the  time  done  its  work.  The  pessimistic  doctrines 
of  Catharism  gradually  became  extinct,  although  the  simple 
and  hopeful  creed  of  the  Waldenses  continued  to  flourish 
amid  the  mountain  fastnesses  of  Piedmont. 

There  was  never  a  heretic  in  England  before  John  Wyclif, 
and  it  is  not  necessary  to  speak  of  him  at  length  here,  for 
his  writings  before  the  Great  Schism  had  mainly  a  political 
character  and  tendency,  and  were  thus  utilised  by  John  of 
Gaunt.  Other  political  philosophers  had  based  their  theories 
on  '  the  Bible  of  the  Christians  or  the  Bible  of  the  philo- 
sophers, the  Scriptures  of  Aristotle.'  Wyclif  based  his  on 
the  feudal  system.  His  treatises  Of  the  Lordship  of  God  and 
Of  Civil  Lordship  were  published  by  1372.  Lordship  and 
service  linked  man  to  God  ;  God  was  the  universal  lord  para- 
mount of  every  man  ;  and  every  individual  man  was  dependent 
on  God  alone,  and  was  bound  to  do  Him  faithful  service. 
Lordship  is  founded  in  grace ;  '  no  one  in  mortal  sin  has 
any  right  to  any  gift  of  God,  while  on  the  other  hand,  every 
man  standing  in  grace  has  not  only  a  right  to,  but  has  in 
fact,  all  the  gifts  of  God  ;  ...  the  righteous  has  all  things ; 
the  wicked  has  nothing,  only  occupies  for  the  time  that  which 
he  has  unrighteously  usurped  or  stolen  from  the  righteous.'  ^ 
^  Lea,  ii.  253.  '^  Poole,  293-5. 


90      IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

If  the  righteous  man  has  not  all  things  in  this  present  life,  if 
the  wicked  man  has  that  which  he  should  not,  their  recom- 
pense will  come  after  death.  Wyclif  s  doctrine  of  Apostolic 
Poverty  was  the  result  of  his  veneration  for  the  spiritual 
dignity  of  the  Church,  which  led  him  to  sever  its  sphere  of 
action  entirely  from  that  of  the  world.^  At  this  period  of 
his  life  he  might  indeed,  like  many  another  true  son  of  the 
Church,  expose  '  the  political  abuses  of  the  hierarchy,  but  in 
his  dogmatic  theology  he  was  without  blemish.'  ^  He  had  not 
broken  loose  from  the  Papacy  when  King  Edward  the  Third 
died  ;  it  was  the  Great  Schism  which  made  him  a  notorious 
heretic.  Except  by  reason  of  their  political  influence,  his 
followers  in  England  indeed  were  but  a  feeble  folk  ;  the  dawn 
of  Reformation  here  was  but  a  false  dawn.  Wyclif's  great 
work  in  the  religious  world  was  wrought  through  John  Hus 
of  Bohemia ;  and  it  is  somewhat  curious  that,  just  as  there 
had  been  no  heresy  in  England  before  the  time  of  John 
Wyclif,  so  John  Hus  boasted  that  there  had  never  been  a 
heretic  in  Bohemia.^ 

If  England,  France,  and  Spain  at  the  outbreak  of  the 
Great  Schism  were  free  from  heresy,  very  different  was  the 
state  of  religious  life  in  Germany,  where  speculation  always 
simmered,  where  the  prelates  resented  papal  interference, 
where  they  and  also  the  whole  of  the  secular  clergy  hated  the 
Mendicant  Orders,  and  resented  anything  like  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  Inquisition.  All  through  the  twelfth,  thirteenth, 
and  fourteenth  centuries  pantheistic  teachers  arose,  for 
Northern  Germany  had  no  sympathy  with  the  Catharism 
which  took  its  rise  in  the  Slavic  countries,  in  Servia  and 
Bosnia.  The  troublous  times  led  to  the  predominance  of 
sentiment  over  intellect.  Among  the  people  associations 
were  formed,  providing  quiet  retreats  in  which  inmates,  male 
or  female,  might  live  secluded  from  the  world,  bound  only 
by  the  vows  of  chastity  and  obedience,  enjoying  the  blessed- 
ness of  inward  peace.  David  of  Dinant,  Amalric  of  Bena, 
and  Eckard  of  Cologne*  promulgated  a  pantheism  which 
became  more  and  more  removed  from  Deism  and  from  the 
historical  foundation  of  Christianity.  Hence  arose  the 
1  Poole,  302.  -  Ibid.  284.  =*  Hoefler,  419.  ■»  Ullmann,  ii.  24. 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  CHURCH    91 

Brotherhoods  and  Sisterhoods  of  the  Free  Spirit.  They  held 
that  God  is  everywhere,  that  everything  emanates  from  Him 
and  returns  to  Him  ;  that  all  souls  return  to  Him  at  death, 
and  that  there  is  neither  purgatory  nor  hell ;  that  sacerdotal 
observances  and  the  sacraments  are  useless  ;  since  the  divine 
and  human  spirits  are  in  nature  identical,  every  act  of  a 
godly  man  is  good  ;  perfection  consists  in  absolute  unity  with 
God,  and  thenceforth  all  outward  actions  are  indifferent, 
for  '  that  which  God  wills  in  man  is  that  which  man  has  the 
strongest  inclination  to  do,  and  to  which  he  inwardly  feels 
himself  most  forcibly  impelled,  and  hence  man  requires  only 
to  follow  the  voice  within  to  execute  the  divine  will.'  ^  The 
Brethren  of  the  Free  Spirit  claimed  that  being  led  by  the 
Spirit  they  were  no  longer  under  the  Law,  they  were  free 
from  its  trammels  ;  they  alleged  that  no  man  was  perfect  in 
whom  the  sight  of  a  naked  man  produced  shame,  or  the  sight 
of  a  naked  woman  produced  passion.  Every  kind  of  indul- 
gence and  excess  was  permissible  to  the  godly  and  pure  in 
heart — a  doctrine  most  attractive  to  the  ungodly  and  the 
impure ;  and  there  is  little  wonder  that  the  carnal  indulgence 
and  licence  of  many  of  the  sectaries  shocked  the  ordinary  lay 
mind."  One  curious  sect  of  pantheists,  the  Luciferans,  main- 
tained that  inasmuch  as  God  was  the  essence  of  all  things, 
therefore  Satan  himself  must  be  divine,  and  the  devil  and  his 
angels  must  ultimately  be  reunited  with  the  Deity.  Fearful 
stories  were  told  as  to  their  hideous  rites  and  initiatory 
ceremonies.  The  Church  was  not  idle.  There  was  a  most 
cruel  persecution  of  the  Beguines  at  the  beginning  of  the 
fourteenth  century  :  Archbishop  Henry  was  very  severe  on 
the  Beghards  of  Cologne.  On  one  occasion  a  jealous  husband 
tracked  his  wife  to  an  earthly  paradise,  witnessed  the  sensual 
orgies  which  were  customary  there,  and  gave  information ; 
many  of  the  leaders  were  either  burned  or  drowned  in  the 
Rhine.  This  was  about  1S25  ;  but  through  the  whole  of 
this  century  these  Antinomians,  Beguines,  Beghards,  and 
Lollards  were  in  opposition  to  the  Church,  and  the  Church 
was  engaged  in  an  exterminating  war  against  them. 

The   strife   between    Pope   John    the    Twenty- second    and 
^  UUmann,  ii.  28.  -  Ibid.  i.  92 


92       IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

Louis  of  Bavaria  was  naturally  favourable  to  the  growth  of 
heresy  ;  and  no  sooner  had  his  successor,  Charles  the  Fourth, 
'  the  priests'  emperor,'  been  recognised,  than  there  appeared 
that  most  fearful  scourge  of  suffering  humanity,  the  plague 
known  as  the  Black  Death.  Although  it  was  not  so  virulent 
in  Germany  as  in  many  parts,  still  one-fourth  of  the  popula- 
tion died ;  and  then  in  the  midst  of  the  universal  misery 
arose  the  sect  of  the  Flagellants.  They  are  said  to  have  first 
appeared  in  Perugia  in  1260.  It  was,  as  it  were,  an  extra- 
ordinary effort  of  propitiation  to  avert  the  destroying  wrath 
of  God ;  '  it  responded  so  thoroughly  to  the  vague  longings 
of  the  people,  and  it  spread  so  rapidly,  that  it  seemed  to  be 
the  result  of  a  universal  consentaneous  impulse."'  ^  They 
held  that  except  by  the  shedding  of  their  own  blood  there 
was  no  remission  of  sin.  Their  leader  displayed  a  mysterious 
letter  which  had  fallen  from  heaven  and  had  been  found  in 
the  church  of  Saint  Peter  at  Jerusalem  ;  in  this  Jesus  Christ 
had  promised  to  be  very  gracious  to  all  penitents  in  their 
processions,  because  the  blood  of  the  Flagellants  was  mingled 
with  His  own.  Vast  herds  of  them  congregated  together — 
men,  women,  and  children — with  veiled  faces,  but  the  men 
bare  to  the  waists  ;  they  marched  in  bands  of  moderate  size, 
each  under  a  leader  and  two  lieutenants ;  they  sang  peni- 
tential songs  as  they  entered  the  towns,  weeping,  groaning, 
and  lamenting;  they  required  every  one  who  joined  them  to 
remain  with  them  for  thirty-three  days,  one  day  for  every 
year  of  our  Lord's  life  on  earth  ;  they  scourged  one  another 
lustily  with  scourges  knotted  with  four  iron  points  until  the 
blood  ran  down  their  backs.  From  Poland  to  the  Rhine 
they  spread,  but  they  flourished  mostly  in  Thuringia,  where 
Conrad  Schmidt  was  their  prophet  Elias,  and  one  of  his 
companions  their  prophet  Enoch.  They  professed  that  the 
blood  with  which  they  bathed  themselves  washed  away  their 
sins  and  avoided  all  necessity  for  the  mediation  of  Holy 
Church  ;  they  held  that  Pope  and  clergy  had  no  power  to 
loose  or  to  bind  ;  that  churches  were  mere  houses  of  stone 
and  dens  of  robbers ;  that  the  Mass  was  a  howling  of  dogs, 
and    the  sacrament  a   vain    babble  of  the  priest ;    that  vows, 

^  Lea,  ii.  381. 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  CHURCH    93 

purgatory,  the  adoration  of  the  Cross  and  of  saints  were 
outworn,  useless  creeds.  Clement  the  Sixth  would  have  none 
of  them,  and  his  severe  measures  repressed  them  for  a 
time.^ 

Charles  the  Fourth  did  little  to  aid  the  Church  in  its  war 
against  heresy  until  his  expedition  into   Italy  in  1368,  when, 
however,   he   issued    two   edicts  of  unparalleled   severity,    in- 
tended  for  the  support  of  Walter  Kerlinger,  the  papal  in- 
quisitor.      The    Waldenses   swarmed    all   over   Germany ;   in 
Thuringia,  Misnia,  Bohemia,  Moravia,  Austria,  and  in  Hungary 
they   appeared    in    their  thousands.      They   were   poor    folk, 
viewed  with   no  ill-will  even   by   the  local   priesthood  ;    they 
conformed  outwardly   in   every   way   to  the  orthodox  observ- 
ances.     A  sect  closely   akin    to  them    were    the    Winkelers. 
Another   sect   which    sprang  up   in  the  lower  Rhineland  was 
that  of  the  Dancers  :   they  also  were  poor  and  simple.     They 
danced  and  sang  until  they  fell  to  the  ground  in  convulsions  ; 
they  were  generally  regarded  as   possessed   by  the  devil ;   they 
had   not   been   properly    baptized,   folk    said,   seeing  that   so 
many  of  the  priests  kept  concubines.      The  sect  spread  over 
a  large  part  of  Germany  and  lasted  for   some  years.      But 
the  Inquisition  directed   its    labours   more  especially  to   the 
Brethren  of  the  Free  Spirit,  to  the  Beghards  and  Beguines, 
where  there  was  spoil  to  be  gathered.      The  Beghards  begged 
their  bread  to  a  monotonous  cry  of  Brod  durcli   Gott,  but 
they  and  the  Beguines  possessed  property.      The  royal  edicts 
had  ordered  the  confiscation  of  all  their  houses  ;  those  of  the 
male  recluses   were  to  be  handed  over  to  the  Inquisition  to 
serve  as  prisons  ;   those  of  the  Beguines  were  to  be  sold,  part 
of  the  proceeds  being  devoted  to  public  purposes,  part  being 
handed  over  to   the   Inquisitors  for  pious  uses.      In  Saxony, 
Hesse,  and  Thuringia  a  rich  harvest  was  reaped.'      Nicolas  of 
Basel,  the  '  Friend  of  God,'  the  invisible  Pope  of  an  invisible 
Church,  a  wandering  missionary  who  had  for  years  propagated 
the  doctrines  of  the  Brethren  of  the  Free  Spirit,  and  who  had 
deceived  many  by  his  visions  and   revelations,  was  tracked  by 
the  Inquisition.      He  fled  to  Vienna  with  two  of  his  disciples  ; 
they    were    discovered    and    seized ;     Henry    of   Langenstein 
1  Lindner  (H.  aiid  L.),  ii.  253.  "^  Ibid.  ii.  254. 


94       IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

laboured  to  convert  them  and  flattered  himself  that  he  had 
succeeded,  but  they  all  three  relapsed,  and  were  burned. 
Another  disciple  of  Nicolas,  Martin  of  Mainz,  who  had 
formerly  been  a  Benedictine  monk,  was  burned  at  Cologne. 
Other  heretics  there  were  who  attacked  auricular  confession, 
extreme  unction,  indulgences,  the  veneration  of  relics,  and 
masses  for  the  dead.  Heretics  were  to  be  found  all  over 
Germany ;  they  were  most  thickly  scattered  over  the  Upper 
Rhine,  in  Switzerland,  and  in  Swabia,  from  Regensburg  to 
the  Austrian  frontier,  throughout  Franconia,  Hesse,  and  the 
Thuringian  Forest.  They  were  usually  ready  to  seal  their 
faith  with  their  blood  ;  hundreds  were  burned  at  the  stake, 
and  the  goods  of  the  wealthy  were  confiscated.  But  with 
the  advent  of  the  Great  Schism  and  the  reign  of  King 
Wenzel,  who,  Gallio-like,  cared  for  none  of  these  things,  per- 
secution in  great  measure  subsided,  and  the  heretics  were  left 
fi'ee  to  believe  and  to  propagate  their  heresy. 

But  while  there  was  thus  much  pestiferous  heresy  and  revolt 
against  the  Papacy,  there  were  also  many  devout  men  whose 
sincere  desire  it  was  to  remain  within  the  obedience  of  the 
Church,  but  whose  pious  aim  at  the  same  time  was  to  bring 
about  an  internal  reform  which  should  sweep  away  the  worst 
abuses  which  discredited  and  disgraced  the  present  system. 
Such  were  the  German  mystics.  The  chief  of  these,  theistical 
but  not  pantheistical,  was  John  Ruysbroek  (1293-1381),  the 
spiritual  father  of  John  Tauler,  the  foremost  preacher  of  his 
day,  and  of  Gerard  Groot.  Ruysbroek  was  a  priest  for  sixty- 
four  years  of  his  life  ;  he  lies  interred  in  the  church  of  his 
monastery  at  Gruenthal.  His  system,  of  the  ecstasy  of  con- 
templation, which  has  been  criticised  on  the  ground  that  it 
has  no  distinct  and  necessary  place  for  the  general  fact  of 
sin,  is  based  on  the  principle  that  man  has  proceeded  from 
God,  and  returns  to  Him  again.  Man  does  not,  however, 
become  in  all  points  one  with  God,  for  God  always  remains 
God,  and  the  creature  always  remains  a  creature  ;  but  when 
man  gives  himself  up  with  perfect  love  to  God,  he  feels  that 
he  is  in  union  with  God  ;  but  when  he  acts  he  feels  that 
he  is  a  separate  being,  distinct  from  God.  Man  attains  to 
this  unity  with  God  through  the  active,  the   inward,  and  the 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  CHURCH    95 

contemplative  life.  The  active  life  consists  in  God's  service 
in  abstinence,  penitence,  morality,  and  holy  action  ;  the 
inward  life  consists  of  love  toward  God,  oneness  of  heart 
with  Him,  the  conquest  of  the  senses,  the  guidance  of  the 
desires  and  senses  to  unity.  The  contemplative  life  consists 
in  free  communion  with  God,  a  going  out  of  ourselves  and 
becoming  one  spirit  with  God  ;  its  peculiarity  lies  in  its  ever 
satisfying,  simple,  but  blessed  repose.  '  This — the  eternal 
repose — is  the  existence  which  has  no  mode,  and  which  all 
deep  spirits  have  chosen  above  all  things.  It  is  the  dark 
silence,  in  which  all  loving  hearts  are  lost.'  ^ 

The  mystics  were  rebels  against  the  system  of  scholastic 
philosophy.  They  circumscribed  the  domain  of  reason  to 
enlarge  that  of  faith.  Reason,  says  Achard,"  is  ignorant, 
but  faith  begins  by  believing  that  which  reason  does  not 
conceive  ;  from  the  imperfection  of  reason  proceeds  the  per- 
fection of  faith.  By  grace,  faith  knows  that  of  which  reason 
can  acquire  no  certitude  by  experience.  It  is  the  province  of 
reason  to  follow  faith,  not  to  precede  her,  to  enable  us  to 
understand  what  we  believe.  Man's  business  in  this  world 
is  not  to  reason,  but  to  pray  ;  he  ought  to  give  himself 
up  wholly  to  God,  who  will  make  him  perfect ;  he  ought  to 
set  up  the  sublime  ladder  of  contemplation,  and,  like  the 
eagle,  taking  flight  from  the  things  of  earth,  to  soar  into  the 
infinite.  Intelligence  guided  by  reason  is  no  infallible  guide ; 
the  true  guide  is  conscience  illuminated  by  grace.  To  attain 
true  knowledge,  one  must  leave  the  study  of  these  vain 
things  on  which  the  mark  of  their  celestial  origin  is  scarce 
apparent ;  one  must  believe,  one  must  love,  one  must  in- 
toxicate oneself  with  that  love  which  communicates  to  the 
faithful  soul  a  holy  ecstasy,  which  transports  it  far  away  from 
matter  to  the  bosom  of  God.^  The  mystics  longed  by  serene 
contemplation  to  lose  themselves  in  God  until  they  found 
Him ;  they  sought  to  work  out  their  own  salvation  by  a 
'  closer  walk  with  God,'  by  communion  with  the  Infinite.  In 
this  they  resembled   the   early  monks,      '  The  votaries  of  this 

'■  UUmann,  ii.  44,  note. 

'^  Haureau,  Histoire  de  la  Philosophie  Scolastique,  i.  507. 

^  Ibid.  i.  507-13. 


96       IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

Divine  Philosophy  aspired  to  imitate  a  pure  and  perfect 
model.  They  trod  in  the  footsteps  of  the  prophets  who 
had  retired  to  the  desert ;  and  they  restored  the  devout  and 
contemplative  life,  which  had  been  instituted  by  the  Essenians 
in  Palestine  and  Egypt. ^ 

Other  reformers  there  were  who  more  nearly  resembled  the 
early  friars.  Filled  with  a  like  consuming  love  for  God,  with 
a  like  disdain  for  vain  philosophy,  and  with  a  like  hatred  for 
polemics,  they  aspired  rather  to  live  for  others  than  for  them- 
selves ;  they  sought  to  tread  in  the  footsteps  of  their  master, 
Jesus  Christ,  and  of  '  sweet  Saint  Francis,"'  who,  like  the 
Master,  went  about  doing  good.  A  life  of  holy  contempla- 
tion had  been  the  ideal  of  John  Ruysbroek  ;  a  life  of  holy 
activity  was  the  ideal  of  Gerhard  Groot  during  his  short 
existence  (1340-1384).  He  was  the  son  of  the  burgomaster 
of  Deventer :  born  in  a  house  upon  the  Brink ;  weak  and 
feeble  in  body,  but  active  of  mind  from  his  youth  up.  He 
studied  at  the  University  of  Paris  from  1355  to  1358  under 
Henry  of  Kalkar,  who  was  distinguished  for  his  works  on 
rhetoric  and  music  and  for  a  history  of  the  Carthusian  monks. 
Gerhard  obtained  his  master's  degree  in  his  eighteenth  year, 
and  then  went  for  further  study  to  the  University  of  Cologne, 
where  he  first  appeared  as  a  professor.  Being  a  man  of  good 
family,  he  soon  obtained,  in  those  days  of  pluralities,  several 
prebends,  and  was  made  Canon  of  Utrecht  and  of  Aix.  He 
was  a  young  prelate  of  the  world  ;  he  ate  and  drank  of  the 
daintiest,  he  clothed  himself  in  fine  raiment,  he  dressed  his 
hair  with  care,  he  enjoyed  himself  thoroughly  in  his  own 
way,^  he  went  to  all  the  public  amusements.  As  he  was 
looking  on  at  some  games  in  Cologne,  some  one  said  to  him, 
'  Why  standest  thou  here  intent  on  these  vanities  'i  Become 
another  man.'  ^  His  old  tutor,  Henry  of  Kalkar,  now  prior 
of  the  Carthusian  monastery  at  Monchhuysen,  met  him  at 
Utrecht ;  he  admonished  him  on  the  vanity  of  this  world,  on 
death,  on  eternity.  His  words  sank  into  Gerhard's  heart ;  he 
was  overcome  with  emotion  ;  he  promised  with  God's  help  to 
renounce  the  world  and  to  lead  a  new  life. 

^  Gibbon,  iv.  306. 

^  '  Sub  omni  ligno  frondoso  el  in  omni  colle  sublimi  fornuatus  sum '  ;   cf. 
Grube,  10.  '  Ullmann,  ii.  62. 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  CHURCH    97 

He  began  by  retiring  into  his  friend's  monastery,  where  he 
spent  three  years  in  seclusion  and  reflection,  in  penitential 
exercises,  and  in  the  study  of  the  Scriptures,  Then  he  re- 
turned to  active  life.  He  became  a  deacon,  but  refused  to 
become  a  priest,  saying  that  not  for  all  the  gold  of  Araby 
would  he  undertake  the  care  of  souls  for  a  single  night.  He 
obtained  from  his  friend  Florentius,  the  Bishop  of  Utrecht,  a 
licence  to  preach.  He  preached  in  the  language  of  the  people, 
in  Low  Dutch  ;  with  an  easy  flow  of  eloquence,  out  of  the 
deep  zeal  of  his  love,  with  intense  anxiety  and  concern  for 
their  souls,  he  preached  to  them  the  repentance  of  sin  and  the 
Gospel  of  Christ.^  Christ  died  for  us ;  we  must  live  for 
Christ.  Christ  as  delineated  in  the  Gospels,  Christ  the  root 
and  the  mirror  of  life,  Christ  the  sole  foundation  of  the 
Church,  was  Gerhard's  faith  ;  ^  the  primitive  apostolic  Church 
shone  in  his  eyes  as  the  model  of  perfection.  Forsaking 
scholastic  disputations,  the  '  new  apostle  of  Germany '  was  a 
revivalist  of  the  modern  type.  Multitudes  thronged  to  hear 
him,  so  that  the  churches  were  not  able  to  contain  them  ;  he 
was  compelled  to  bring  his  hearers  into  the  open  air.  Like 
Saint  Francis,  he  eschewed  scholasticism  and  polemics ;  his 
erudition  was  not  great ;  his  Latin  was  faulty  and  his  Greek 
a  negligible  quantity.  But  he  was  instant  in  season  and  out, 
with  his  fellow  travellers,  with  those  who  sat  with  him  at 
meat,  with  the  scholars  to  whom  he  gave  books  to  copy ;  in 
loving  humility  he  called  upon  all  alike,  for  their  souls'  sake, 
to  flee  from  the  wrath  to  come.  He  preached  against  sin,  by 
whomsoever  practised  :  when  the  Bishop  of  Utrecht  wished  to 
suppress  concubinage  among  the  clergy,  Gerhard  Groot  was 
commissioned  to  preach  the  sermon  in  the  General  Synod  in 
the  Cathedral  at  Utrecht.^  His  Sermo  de  forcaristis,f actus 
in  dovio  capUulari  Trajectensi,  has  come  down  to  us  ;  it  was 
delivered  in  the  summer  of  1383,*  He  was  no  fautor  of 
heresy  ;  in  fact,  he  was  a  malleus  hcereticorumJ'  Especially 
inimical  was  he  to  the  sect  of  the  Free  Spirit,  who  contemned 
all  the  holy  sacraments  ;  he  pursued  relentlessly  the  Austin 
friar,  Bartholomaeus  of  Dordrecht,  whose  sermons  smacked  of 

1  Grube,  17.  ^  Ullmann,  ii.  75.  '  Grube,  21. 

*  Bonet- Maury,  40.  *  Ibid.  37. 


98       IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCH.S 

this  heresy.  It  was  at  this  time  that  the  strife  between  the 
regular  and  the  secular  clergy  was  fiercest ;  and  Bartholo- 
maeus  had  influential  friends  among  the  magistrates  of 
Kampen.  The  Bishop  of  Utrecht  was  constrained  to  inter- 
fere ;  to  make  the  blow  as  light  as  possible  for  his  friend,  he 
forbade  all  deacons  to  preach  in  his  diocese.  Gerhard  refused 
to  appeal  against  the  order ;  until  the  last  year  of  his  life  he 
never  preached  again.^  His  energy  was  not  quenched ;  it 
was  diverted  into  another  channel. 

Shortly  before  this,  in  1378,  Gerhard  had  visited  John 
Ruysbroek,  the  Prior  of  the  Canons  in  the  monastery  at 
Gruenthal ;  he  was  deeply  impressed  by  the  edifying  and 
simple  life  of  the  mystic,  and  was  no  less  impressed  by  the 
brotherly  spirit  which  pervaded  the  social  life  of  the  Canons 
of  Gruenthal ;  they  formed  a  true  brotherhood.  Gerhard 
pushed  on  as  far  as  Paris  to  purchase  books  important  for 
the  instruction  of  youth.  When  he  returned  to  Deventer 
he  set  himself  to  the  education  of  the  young,  and  to  the 
transcribing  of  good  books.  He  employed  young  men  as 
copvists ;  and  the  circle  of  his  young  friends,  his  scholars,  and 
his  copyists  grew  larger  every  day  and  soon  became  a  regular 
society.  One  of  these  was  Florentius  Radewin,  then  vicar  of 
Deventer.  '  Dear  master,'  said  Florentius  one  day,  '  what 
harm  would  it  do  were  I  and  these  copyists  to  put  our  weekly 
earninffs  into  a  common  fund  and  live  together  ?  '  '  The  men- 
dicant  monks  would  never  allow  it,'  answered  Gerhard.  '  But 
what  is  to  prevent  us  trying  ?  Perhaps  God  will  grant  us  suc- 
cess.' '  Well,  then,'  said  Gerhard, '  in  God's  name  begin.  I  will 
be  your  advocate  and  will  faithfully  defend  you  against  them.'  ^ 
Thus  arose  the  first  Society  of  the  Common  Lot,  soon  to  be 
followed  by  many  other  brotherhoods  of  the  same  description. 

The  Brethren  of  the  Common  Lot  or  of  the  Common 
Life,  or  the  Brethren  of  Goodwill,  as  they  sometimes 
styled  themselves,  shared  their  goods  in  common ;  they 
lived  partly  by  their  manual  labour,  they  received  but  never 
solicited  voluntary  donations.  Their  object  was,  by  the 
simplicity  of  their  life  and  by  religious  exercises,  to  promote 
the  growth  of  practical  Christianity.  Even  during  the  life- 
*  Grube,  "jiet  seq.  "  UUmann,  ii.  70. 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  CHURCH    99 

time  of  Gerhard  these  houses  of  the  Brethren  spread  as  fai-  as 
Saxony.  Each  house,  as  a  general  rule,  consisted  of  about 
twenty  members,  four  })riests,  eight  clerks,  and  the  rest  laymen 
on  probation.  Only  after  a  year  of  rigorous  probation  was 
a  layman  admitted  as  a  clerk  ;  even  then  no  vow  was  taken 
from  him,  and  he  was  at  liberty  to  leave  at  any  time  on 
settling  accounts.  The  brethren  dressed  in  grey  ;  they  had 
fixed  hours  for  devotional  exercises  and  for  labour ;  they 
dined  together.  A  rector  and  a  vice-rector  presided  over  each 
house ;  and  certain  of  the  brethren  wei'e  entrusted  with  the 
offices  of  steward,  of  head  copyist,  of  librarian,  of  master  of 
the  novices,  of  keeper  of  the  infirmary  or  hospital  ;  but  no 
hard  and  fast  rule  was  established  ;  each  house  made  its  own 
arrangements.  The  same  was  the  case  with  the  trades  prac- 
tised ;  the  transcribing  and  dissemination  of  holy  books  was 
the  chief  end  for  which  the  houses  existed  ;  but  the  industry 
of  each  house  depended  upon  its  special  aptitude.  The  house 
at  Hildesheim  was  a  manufactory  of  mass-books  and  of 
clerical  garments ;  the  Convent  of  St.  Mary  at  Beverwijk 
traded  in  parchment,  honey,  wax,  and  salt-fish  ;  the  house  at 
Hattem  practised  only  agriculture  and  weaving.^ 

The  house  of  the  Brethren  at  Deventer,  being  the  earliest, 
was  regarded  as  the  parent-house,  and  its  rector  was  looked 
upon  as  the  common  father  of  the  Brethren.  When  Gerhard 
Groot  died  of  the  plague  in  1384,  he  appointed  Florentius 
Radewin  to  be  his  successor ;  and  when  Radewin  died  he 
appointed  iEmilius  van  Buren.  Next  to  the  dissemination  of 
the  Scriptures,  the  education  of  the  young  was  the  principal 
work  of  the  brethren.  Gerhard  Groofs  scheme  was  simplicity 
itself :  he  aimed  to  teach  a  godly  life ;  he  eschewed  arith- 
metic, geometry,  logic,  rhetoric,  grammar,  and  the  like.  First 
he  taught  the  Gospel,  then  the  lives  of  the  saints,  then  the 
Epistles  of  Saint  Paul  and  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  then  the 
works  of  Bernard,  Anselm,  and  Augustine.  Reading,  writ- 
ing, singing,  Latin  spoken  and  written,  and  religion  were  the 
subjects  taught  at  the  schools  of  the  Brethren.  The  teaching 
was  not  so  superficial  as  in  the  conventual  schools  ;  it  was  not 
confined  only  to  those  who  could  pay,  as  in  the  town-schools 
'  UUmann,  ii.  93, 


100     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

of  Holland  at  this  time.  The  instruction  was  not  generally 
gratuitous,  but  poor  students  were  given  their  subsistence 
and  the  means  of  study.  The  schools  of  the  Brethren 
flourished  exceedingly :  that  at  Groeningen  was  frequented  by 
extraordinary  numbers ;  that  at  Herzogenbusch  numbered 
twelve  hundred  scholars.  Wherever  a  large  number  of  pupils 
was  assured,  the  services  of  more  distinguished  teachers  were 
permanently  retained  ;  classics  were  put  into  the  hands  of 
the  scholars  and  improved  grammars  were  introduced  ;  schol- 
astic Latin  was  superseded  by  Latin  which  Cicero  could  have 
understood.  Their  preaching  also  was  in  the  vulgar  tongue, 
so  as  to  be  understandied  of  the  people.  Some  preached  only 
for  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  others  for  three  or  even  six  hours  ; 
the  people  listened  eagerly.  They  also  gave  collations,  '  a  sort 
of  edifying  private  addresses.'  Preaching,  except  in  Latin,  was 
almost  a  lost  art ;  but  now  a  succession  of  distinguished  men 
made  their  appearance  in  Holland.  John  Binkerink,  John 
Gronde,  Wermbold,  William  Henrici,  Henry  Gronde,  Hugo 
Aurifaber,  Giesebert  Don,  and  Brother  Paulus,  all,  there  is 
reason  to  believe,  preached  in  the  style  and  spirit  of  Gerhard 
and  Florentius.^  In  the  next  century,  from  the  monastery  on 
Mount  Saint  Agnes,  came  one  Thomas  a  Kempis,  '  the  ablest 
expounder  and  most  successful  propagator '  of  the  Christian 
mysticism  of  the  Brethren,  the  author  of  that  wonderful  work 
which  has  had  more  influence  than  any  other  book  save  the 
Bible  on  the  religious  life  of  Christendom. 

The  communities  of  the  Brethren  and  of  the  Sisters  of  the 
Common  Life  gave  latitude  without  coherence,  and  their 
founder  felt  that  something  more  was  needed  to  perfect  his 
scheme.  A  backbone  was  wanted  for  the  system,  some  cen- 
tral organism  to  which  these  outlying  members  would  be 
articulated,  something  which  should  provide  a  rule  and 
example  for  their  life,  and  a  safeguard  for  their  wellbeing  and 
protection.  Gerhard  recognised  that  some  central  authority 
was  needed  for  counsel,  support,  and  guidance  ;  he  saw  that  if 
this  supreme  power  were  centred  in  some  well-ordered  and 
regularly  sanctioned  body,  it  would  help  to  keep  the  Brethren 
together,  to  protect  them  from  external  corrupting  influences, 

*  Ullmann,  ii.  96,  7, 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  CHURCH       101 

to  shelter  them  from  the  malicious  machinations  of  the 
mendicant  orders,  and  from  others  who  wished  them  ill.^ 

For  some  years  Groot  had  to  this  end  designed  to  establish  an 
order  of  Canons,  but  death  came  to  him  before  he  had  carried 
out  his  scheme.  As  he  lay  a- dying,  he  called  Florentius  and 
others  to  him  and  charged  them  to  form  such  a  monastery  as 
he  described.  He  did  not  wish  his  order  to  be  of  the  severe 
and  secluded  Carthusian  or  Cistercian  pattern  ;  he  desired  a 
monastery  of  Canons  Regular  of  the  Order  of  Saint  Augus- 
tine. There  was  a  waste  piece  of  ground  on  the  bank  of  the 
Yssel,  between  Deventer  and  Zwolle,  which  he  designated  as 
suitable  for  the  purpose.  Here,  two  years  after  the  death  of 
Gerhard  Groot,  the  monastery  of  Windesheim  was  founded. 
The  Duke  of  Guelders  countenanced  the  undertaking.  Bert- 
holf  ten  Hove  and  Lambert  Stuerman  gave  the  land  ;  several 
rich  men  endowed  the  institution  ;  the  Bishop  of  Utrecht 
sanctioned  and  approved.  Six  years  later,  in  1392,  a  second 
monastery,  the  Fountain  of  the  Blessed  Mary,  was  founded  at 
Arnheim  ;  to  be  followed  by  the  monastery  of  the  New  Light, 
near  Hoern,  and  by  that  of  Mount  Saint  Agnes,  the  site  of  which 
had  been  chosen  by  Gerhard  long  years  before,  though  it  was 
not  founded  until  1398.  Eventually  the  number  of  monas- 
teries in  Germany,  the  Low  Countries,  and  the  north  and 
centre  of  France,  increased  to  four  score.  The  Canons  took 
the  vows  of  poverty,  chastity,  and  obedience ;  they  provided 
leaders  for  the  brotherhoods  ;  they  disseminated  the  know- 
ledge of  the  Gospel ;  they  enlarged  the  area  and  extended  the 
scope  of  popular  education.  But  the  greatest  glory  of  the 
Brotherhoods  of  the  Common  Life  is  to  have  produced  such 
humanists  as  Agricola  and  Hegius,  Busch  and  Lange,  Wessel 
and  Erasmus,  and  to  have  indirectly  by  their  criticism  of  sacred 
and  secular  works  prepared  the  way  for  the  Reformation.^ 

A  spirit  of  reform,  akin  to  that  which  animated  the 
Brothers  of  the  Common  Life,  manifested  itself  in  the  four- 
teenth century  in  Bohemia,  where  the  fostering  care  of  the 
Emperor  Charles  the  Fourth  had  raised  the  clergy  generally 
in  education  and  morality  to  a  higher  level  than  their 
brethren  in  the  rest  of  the  Empire.  Here  also  the  quarrel 
^  Kettlewell,  Thomas  h  Kempis,  i88.  ^  Bonet-Maury,  80. 


102     IN  THE  BAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

was  with  the  Friars.  Conrad  Waldhauser,  an  Augustine 
Canon,  was  invited  by  the  Emperor  from  Austria  to  Prague, 
and  began  his  ministrations  in  1360.  In  his  sermons  he 
scourged  the  arrogance,  avarice,  and  sensual  luxury  of  his 
listeners  ;  the  multitudes  thronged  to  hear  him,  so  that  there 
was  no  room  for  them  in  any  church,  and  Conrad  had  to 
preach  in  the  open  squares.  Usurers  ceased  their  usury  and 
offered  to  restore  their  ill-gotten  gains ;  men  ceased  to  molest 
merchants'  daughters  in  the  churches  ;  women  sacrificed  their 
finery,  their  costly  veils,  their  robes  decked  with  gold  and 
pearls.  Could  the  founders  of  the  Friars  return  to  the  earth, 
said  Conrad,  their  present  disciples  would  stone  them.  The 
Augustinian  Hermits  and  the  Dominican  Friars  tried  to  con- 
vict him  of  heresy,  but  their  efforts  failed  :  Conrad's  influence 
in  Prague  remained  unabated  until  his  death  in  1369. 

Conrad  preached  in  the  German  language,  in  a  style  noted 
for  simplicity,  clearness,  and  accuracy  ;  Milic  preached  in 
the  Bohemian  tongue,  and  his  poetical  rhapsodies  appealed 
to  the  emotions  and  passions  of  his  hearers.  He  was  Pre- 
bendary of  the  Prague  Cathedral  and  Vice- Chancel  lor  to  the 
Emperor,  but  in  1363  he  gave  up  place  and  power  in  order 
to  follow  Christ  in  poverty  and  to  preach  His  word.  The 
'  son  and  image  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,'  he  meditated  on 
the  old  prophecies  and  the  Revelation  until  Antichrist 
became  an  obsession  to  him  ;  he  saw  its  influence  in  every- 
thing, in  the  clergy  from  the  archbishops  down  to  the  friars  ; 
he  discovered  that  Antichrist  would  appear  in  person  in  the 
world  in  1366.  He  went  so  far  as  on  one  occasion  to  attack 
Charles  the  Fourth  himself,  and  was  thrown  into  prison  by 
the  archbishop  ;  but  the  Emperor  did  not  remove  his  favour 
from  him,  and  Milic  appealed  to  Rome.  He  went  to  Rome 
and  there  got  again  thrown  into  prison,  but  when  Urban  the 
Fifth  came  back  from  Avignon,  Milic  was  released  and  re- 
turned to  Prague  and  his  preaching  again.  Antichrist 
retired  into  the  background  ;  Milic  attacked  immorality  with 
such  fervour  and  effect  that  the  Venetian  quarter  in  Prague, 
where  the  women  of  evil  fame  lived,  became  deserted  by  its 
inmates  and  was  pulled  down  to  build  a  penitentiary,  known 
a,6  Jerusalem.      Milic   supported   on  a  voluntary  system  both 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  CHURCH       103 

this  institution  and  his  house  for  converts,  and  was  often  hard 
pressed  for  funds  ;  but  he  devoted  to  the  work  all  the  rich 
gifts  which  came  to  him,  for  he  was  confessor  and  spiritual 
director  to  hundreds.  His  influence  was  enormous.  The 
Mendicant  Friars  attacked  him,  and  brought  twelve  charges 
of  heresy  against  him  ;  Milic  set  out  for  Avignon,  cleared 
himself  of  every  suspicion  of  heresy,  but  fell  ill  and  died  in 
1374,  before  judgment  was  pronounced. 

What  Waldhauser  and  Milic  had  endeavoured  to  effect  by 
the  living  voice,  Mathias  of  Janow,  the  son  of  a  Bohemian 
knight,  did  by  his  writings.  He  had  studied  in  Paris,  had 
lived  in  Rome  and  Nuernberg,  and  was  appointed  by  Pope 
Urban  the  Sixth  to  be  Prebendary  of  Prague.  His  chief 
work,  on  the  Maxims  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments, 
exercised  an  immense  influence  in  his  own  time,  though 
subsequent  ages  found  it  insufficient ;  he  deducted  four  funda- 
mental principles  from  the  Old  and  eight  from  the  New 
Testament,  troubling  himself  but  little  about  the  dogma  but 
much  about  the  practice  of  Christianity,  the  love  of  God  and 
one's  neighbour,  meekness  and  self-sacrifice,  the  imitation  of 
Christ  in  all  things.  He  was  a  great  advocate  for  frequent 
communion  by  the  laity,  as  were  others  of  the  more  learned 
among  his  Bohemian  contemporaries ;  but  he  was  always 
an  obedient  son  of  the  Church,  and  gave  up  his  advocacy  of 
daily  communion  and  of  communion  in  both  kinds  at  her 
bidding,  and  also  recanted  his  condemnation  of  the  veneration 
of  shrines  and  relics.  Janow  died  in  1394;  but  many 
professors  and  preachers  in  Prague  carried  on  the  work  begun 
by  Waldhauser,  Milic,  and  Janow,  They  resembled  the 
school  at  Deventer  in  their  efforts  toward  a  reformation  of 
life  and  morals,  in  their  teaching  and  preaching  in  the  vulgar 
tongue,  in  their  promulgation  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  ;  but 
they  differed  from  that  school  in  so  far  that  they  established 
no  brotherhoods  nor  monasteries,  and  so  left  no  settled  organ- 
isation to  carry  on  the  work  of  internal  reformation.  In 
Western  Germany  and  in  Bohemia  alike  the  reformers  were 
faithful  children  of  the  Church,  and  were  bitterly  opposed  to 
and  opposed  by  the  Friars.^ 

'  Palacky,  iii.  l6i  et  seq. 


104     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

These  efforts  at  internal  reform,  unlike  the  movements  of 
Wyclif  and  of  Hus,  which  have  largely  a  political  character, 
vi^ere  free  from  all  taint  of  heresy.  The  promoters  were 
indeed  accused  of  heresy  by  the  Friars,  but  they  had  no 
difficulty  in  clearing  themselves.  They  were  always  ready  to 
submit  all  points  of  doctrine  to  the  arbitrament  of  the  Pope, 
and  they  desired  nothing  so  much  as  to  remain  in  the  bosom 
of  the  Holy  Roman  Church. 

In  the  internal  reform  of  the  Church  in  matters  of  pure 
theology  a  predominating  influence  was  exercised  by  the 
University  of  Paris,  the  '  eldest  daughter  of  the  King,'  which 
in  the  sphere  of  ecclesiastical  politics  had  acquired  a  unique 
position  in  Europe.  Its  scholars  were  citizens  of  the  world  : 
'  though  almost  all  the  greatest  schoolmen  from  the  time  of 
Abelard  onwards  taught  in  Paris  at  one  period  or  another  of 
their  lives,  hardly  one  Parisian  Scholastic  of  the  very  first 
rank  was  a  Frenchman  by  birth.'  ^  The  University  owed  its 
importance,  partly  to  its  position  in  the  capital  city  of  France, 
in  which  it  differed  from  the  English  Universities,  and  partly 
to  its  organisation,  by  which  its  judgment  in  matters  theo- 
logical was  '  backed  by  the  weight  of  numbers — by  its 
hundreds  of  Masters  of  Arts  and  its  thousands  of  students,' 
wherein  it  differed  from  the  Universities  of  Italy.  It  became 
the  tribunal  of  orthodoxy.  In  opposition  to  the  Franciscans 
it  condemned  their  doctrine  of  Apostolic  Poverty  ;  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  Dominicans  it  upheld  the  Franciscan  doctrine  of 
the  Immaculate  Conception  of  the  Virgin  ;  in  opposition  to 
the  Franciscans  and  the  Pope  it  condemned  the  doctrine 
of  the  Retardation  of  the  Beatific  Vision,  so  that  John  the 
Twenty-second  apologised  for  expressing  an  opinion  when  he 
was  not  a  Doctor  of  Divinity ;  in  opposition  to  the  Domini- 
cans and  Franciscans  alike  it  upheld  the  rights  of  the  secular 
clergy.  It  was  abundantly  clear  that  in  the  dissensions  and 
discussions  consequent  on  the  Great  Schism  the  voice  of  the 
University  of  Paris  would  be  one  of  the  clearest  and  most 
authoritative. 

1  Rashdall,  i.  518. 


THE  GREAT  SCHISM  105 


CHAPTER   III 

THE  GREAT    SCHISM 

Thk  '  Seventy  Years'  Captivity ""  of  the  Popes  at  Avignon 
came  to  an  end  in  1377.  Urban  the  Fifth  had  returned  to 
Rome  ten  years  earlier,  but  he  had  again  deserted  the 
Eternal  City  for  Avignon  ;  he  died  three  months  after  his 
return,  and  his  death  was  regarded  as  the  judgment  of  God 
upon  him  in  abandoning  Rome.  It  had  been  foretold  by 
Saint  Brigitta  of  Sweden.  '  If  he  should  return,'  she  had 
said,  '  he  will  in  a  brief  while  receive  such  a  stroke  that  his 
teeth  will  gnash,  his  sight  will  be  darkened  and  grow  dim, 
and  all  the  limbs  of  his  body  will  tremble,  .  .  .  and  he  will 
render  account  before  God  of  the  things  which  he  has  done.'  ^ 
Gregory  the  Eleventh,  stimulated  by  Saint  Catharine  of 
Siena,  the  successor  of  the  Swedish  prophetess,  returned  to 
Rome  at  the  end  of  1377;  he  meditated  a  like  treachery 
with  Urban,  but  his  return  to  Avignon  was  prevented  by  his 
death  (March  27,  1378). 

The  return  of  Gregory  was  indeed  a  political  necessity  if 
the  Papal  States  were  to  be  saved  to  the  Church.  Gerard 
du  Puy  had  in  1372  succeeded  Cardinal  d'Estaing  as  Vicar 
Apostolic  of  Perugia,  and  in  1374  Guillaume  de  Noellet 
was  appointed  Papal  Legate  of  Bologna.  These  two  rulers 
exasperated  their  subjects  by  their  ruthless  cruelty,  and  a 
spirit  of  opposition  to  papal  oppression  blazed  out  and  spread 
through  the  surrounding  country  ;  they  excited  the  hatred 
of  their  own  people  and  the  distrust  of  their  neighbours. 
Florence,  suffering  from  pestilence  and  famine,  expected  the 
usual  convoys  of  grain  from  Bologna ;  the  Legate  not  only 
stopped  the  export,  but  sent  soldiers  to  ravage  the  Florentine 

^  Gardner,  79. 


106     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

fields  in  which  the  new  grain  was  ripening.  This  was  the 
culminating  outrage.  Florence  took  the  lead  in  a  war  of 
Liberty,  to  free  the  people  who  were  groaning  under  the 
hated  yoke  of  the  French  Legates.  The  movement  spread 
like  wildfire.  Li  ten  days  eighty  towns  and  castles  threw  off 
the  yoke  of  the  Church.  The  Pope  put  Florence  under  an 
interdict,  and  procured  the  confiscation  of  Florentine  goods 
through  France  and  England.  In  1376  Bologna  joined  the 
league  against  the  Church.  Cardinal  Robert  of  Geneva  was 
sent  as  Legate  of  the  Romagna  and  the  March  of  Ancona  ; 
he  took  over  charge  of  the  Company  of  the  Bretons,  well 
known  for  their  savage  and  brutal  ferocity,  and  made  his  way 
to  Ferrara.  He  tried  to  provoke  the  men  of  Bologna  to 
battle,  but  they  refused  to  come  forth  from  behind  their 
walls.  Robert  of  Geneva  announced  his  intention  of  not 
leaving  Bologna  until  he  had  washed  his  hands  and  his  feet 
in  the  blood  of  her  citizens.^  He  was  constrained  to  go  into 
winter  quarters,  however,  in  the  friendly  town  of  Cesena.  The 
Bretons  treated  the  town  as  if  they  had  taken  it  by  assault ; 
they  plundered  the  houses  of  the  citizens,  they  ravished  their 
wives  and  daughters.  On  the  1st  February  1377  some  of 
the  townsfolk  attacked  the  Bretons  and  killed  three  hundred 
of  them  ;  the  Cardinal  acknowledged  that  his  soldiers  were 
in  the  wrong,  and  promised  a  complete  amnesty  to  Cesena  if 
the  citizens  would  again  open  their  gates  to  him.  They 
believed  him,  and  did  so.  The  Cardinal  thereupon  ordered 
a  general  massacre.  He  hounded  on  his  troops,  crying  out 
for  Blood,  Blood  :  '  Kill  them  all  ! '  he  shouted.  The  bloody 
massacre  of  Cesena  sent  a  thrill  of  horror  through  Italy  :  it 
necessitated  the  return  of  the  Pope  to  Rome. 

Bologna,  which  had  been  the  last  to  join,  was  the  first  to 
abandon  the  league,  and  to  return  to  her  allegiance  to  the 
Pope  ;  she  was  to  have  the  right  of  free  government,  and  con- 
sented to  receive  a  Vicar  Apostolic.  Vico  followed  suit. 
Florence,  being  abandoned  by  her  most  powerful  allies, 
herself  opened  negotiations  with  Gregory,  A  peace  conference 
was  held  at  Sarzana,  under  the  presidency  of  Bernabo  Visconti. 
Before  the  terms  had  been  arranged,  on  the  evening  of  March 

'  Sismondi  (/.  J?.),  iv.  421. 


THE  GREAT  SCHISM  loY 

27,  1378,  there  came  a  knocking  at  the  city  gate,  and  a  cry, 
*  Open  quickly  to  the  messenger  of  Peace.'  The  gate  was 
opened,  but  no  one  was  there.  Then  a  cry  ran  through 
Sarzana,  '  The  Olive  has  come,  the  Peace  is  made.'  It  was  at 
this  day  and  hour  that  Pope  Gregory  the  Eleventh  died.^ 

The  election  of  the  new  Pope  was  everywhere  expected 
with  the  utmost  anxiety  ;  it  was  universally  recognised  as  a 
momentous  event.  Gregory  himself  had  been  filled  with  the 
gloomiest  forebodings.  From  his  death-bed  he  had  issued  a 
Bull  ordering  the  cardinals  then  in  Rome  to  proceed  at  once 
to  the  new  election  without  awaiting  the  arrival  of  their 
absent  colleagues.  There  were  sixteen  cardinals  then  in  the 
city  :  ten  of  them  were  Frenchmen,  four  were  Italians.  Six 
of  the  French  cardinals  were  of  the  Limousin  faction,  con- 
nected by  birth  or  otherwise  with  the  families  of  the  last 
three  Popes  ;  the  other  four  French  cardinals  constituted  the 
Galilean  faction,  and  were  bitterly  opposed  to  the  Limousins. 
With  the  Galileans  acted  the  two  remaining  cardinals,  Pedro 
de  Luna,  the  favourite  of  Saint  Catharine,  and  Robert  of 
Geneva,  who  only  a  year  earlier  (3rd  February  1377)  had 
perpetrated  the  bloody  massacre  of  Cesena.  A  majority  of 
two-thirds  was  necessary  for  election  :  the  French  or  Galilean 
party  was  resolved  that  there  should  be  no  fresh  Limousin 
Pope;  they  would  have  preferred  one  of  themselves,  but 
recognised  that  of  this  there  was  no  chance.  The  young 
Roman  Cardinal,  Jacopo  Orsini,  counting  on  the  aid  of  the 
nobles  and  the  populace,  dreamed  that  the  tiara  might  fall  to 
him.  The  Galileans  would  have  preferred  Pierre  Flandrin  or 
Guillaume  de   Noellet.'"^ 

Rome  itself  was  in  a  turmoil :  the  nobles  and  high  officials  of 
the  Church  were  expelled  from  the  city;^  the  Romans  themselves 
were  in  a  state  of  frantic  excitement.  They  were  determined 
that  the  divorce  of  the  Papacy  from  their  city  should  no  longer 
continue,*  that  the  profits  which  pilgrims  and  others  brought 
to  the  dwelling-place  of  the  Pope  should  be  theirs  ;  they  were 
decided  that  no  Frenchman  should  be  Pope ;  they  desired  a 
Roman,  or  at  all  events  an  Italian.  Popular  feeling  ran  to 
fever-heat.  Each  division  of  the  French  cardinals  was  ready  to 
1  Gardner,  233.  -  Ibid.  255.  ^  Hcfele,  vi.  731.         *  Ibid.  vi.  738. 


108     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

side  with  the  Italians  rather  than  vote  for  the  candidate  of  the 
opposite  faction  ;  ^  and  the  hopes  of  Orsini  began  to  run  high. 
In  this  state,  on  the  7th  April,  with  dissensions  in  their  own 
body  and  with  a  violent  tumult  raging  outside,  the  cardinals 
entered  the  upper  story  in  which  the  conclave  was  held. 
Nature  itself  seemed  to  take  part  in  the  strife  ;  a  storm  of 
thunder  and  lightning  came  on  ;  men  said  that  the  lightning 
struck  the  cells  of  Robert  of  Geneva  and  Pedro  de  Luna,  the 
future  anti-popes.^  The  multitude  howled  without : '  Romano, 
Romano  volemo  lo  Papa,  o  almanco  ItaUano ! '  ^  They  swore 
to  make  the  heads  of  the  cardinals  as  red  as  their  hats  ;  they 
piled  with  faggots  the  room  over  which  the  conclave  was  held  ; 
they  threatened  death  to  the  cardinals  if  their  wishes  were 
not  consulted.  Bartolommeo  Prignano,  Archbishop  of  Bari, 
said  to  a  friend,  '  He  who  is  elected  in  such  a  tumult  can 
never  be  Pope;  nobody  will  recognise  him.'^  All  through 
the  night  the  populace  kept  up  the  din ;  peasants  from  the 
hills  broke  into  the  Vatican  cellars  and  drank  up  the  good 
papal  wine ;  men  beat  against  the  floor  under  the  conclave 
with  their  pikes  and  halberds;  they  rang  all  the  church  bells 
of  the  city  and  sounded  the  tocsin  of  the  Capitol  ;  in  the 
morning  they  forced  the  doors  of  the  conclave.  Three 
cardinals  came  out  to  parley  with  the  ringleaders,  who 
threatened  to  tear  them  in  pieces  if  they  did  not  at  once 
elect  a  Roman  or  an  Italian.  It  was  necessary  to  do  some- 
thing, and  that  speedily.  The  cardinals  promised  to  satisfy 
the  wishes  of  the  multitude,  and  consulted  together.  Divers 
plans  were  suggested.  Finally  Jean  de  Cros,  Cardinal  of 
Limoges,  of  the  Limousin  faction,  proposed  that  no  one  of 
the  cardinals  should  be  elected,  but  that  one  outside  the 
sacred  college  should  be  chosen,  and  he  named  the  Archbishop 
of  Bari  as  future  Pope  :  he  was  an  Italian,  a  Neapolitan,  and 
his  election  would  satisfy  those  who  insisted  on  an  Italian  as 
Pope.  Moreover,  the  archbishop  '  had  lately  bought  himself 
a  house  and  a  vineyard  in  Rome,  in  order  to  qualify  as  a 
Roman  citizen.'^  The  Limousin  faction  also  secretly  com- 
forted themselves  with  the  reflection  that  Bartolommeo  Prignano 

'   Hefele,  vi.  772.  '  Lenfant,  i.  8.  ^  Hefele,  vi.  733. 

*  LcDfant,  i.  10.  *  Gardner,  258. 


THE  GREAT  SCHISM  109 

had  risen  to  his  present  position  through  the  patronage  of 
the  Cardinal  of  Pampeluiia,  who  was  a  Limousin,^  so  that  if 
elected  they  judged  and  hoped  that  he  would  be  grateful  to 
the  Limousin  party.  All  the  cardinals  thought  that  they 
would  find  in  the  Archbishop  of  Bari,  who  had  lived  for  some 
years  at  the  court  at  Avignon,  a  ready  and  subservient  tool. 
Bartolommeo  Prignano  was  accordingly  elected  Pope.  The 
name  of  '  Bari,  Bari,'  was  called  out  to  the  Roman  crowd ; 
they  mistook  it  for  the  name  of  the  Limousin,  Jean  de  Bar, 
and  rushed  into  the  conclave,  threatening  death  to  the  traitor 
cardinals.^  Then  old  Tebaldeschi,  the  Cardinal  of  Saint 
Peter"'s,  was  presented  to  the  mob  ;  ^  but  the  aged  prelate's 
cries,  protestations,  and  curses  at  length  undeceived  them. 
The  cardinals  fled  from  the  palace.  Two  days  later,  to  the 
intense  joy  of  the  populace,  the  Archbishop  of  Bari  was 
crowned  Pope,  and  took  the  name  of  Urban  the  Sixth.  The 
cardinals  wrote  to  those  of  their  number  who  had  remained 
behind  at  Avignon,  announcing  to  them  that  under  the 
guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit  they  had  unanimously  elected  the 
Archbishop  of  Bari  to  be  Pope,  that  he  had  duly  taken  his 
seat  on  the  apostolic  throne,  and  that  he  had  been  crowned 
on  the  day  of  Our  Lord's  Resurrection. 

The  new  Pope  was  a  short,  fat  man,  a  dark-faced  Nea- 
politan,^ filled  with  a  certain  monkish  piety,  with  a  hatred  of 
pomp  and  of  simony,  but  brusque  and  impetuous,  utterly 
devoid  of  tact  and  self-restraint,  and  without  any  knowledge 
of  the  world.  Had  he  known  how  to  appreciate  the  circum- 
stances aright,  he  would  have  seen  a  great  future  opening 
before  him.  There  is  no  doubt  that  his  election,  though  it 
may  have  been  tainted  with  irregularity,  was  canonically 
valid.^  It  had  been  held  in  the  midst  of  a  tumult,  and  the 
cardinals  had  not  been  bricked  up  according  to  custom.^ 
But  they  had  solemnly  declared  that  they  had  elected  him 
freely  and  advisedly ;  they  had  appeared  at  his  coronation  ; 
nay,  more,  they  stood  by  him,  obeyed  him,  accepted  and 
solicited  favours  from  him  ^  not  only  immediately  after  his 

^  Hefele,  vi.  740.  ^  Dt  Schismate,  12.  '  Hefele,  vi.  736,  743. 

*  De  Schismate,  9.  '  Tschackert,  4.  *  Hefele,  vi.  733. 

■^  Ibid.  vi.  777. 


110     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

election,  but  for  the  first  three  months  of  his  reign.  Their 
conduct  during  this  time  confirmed,  if  any  confirmation  were 
necessary,  the  canonicity  and  regularity  of  his  election.  The 
new  Pope  was  recognised  by  the  cardinals,  was  recognised 
through  Christendom,  as  being  the  true  and  canonical  Pope. 
Up  to  the  end  of  July  not  a  breath  of  suspicion  tainted  the 
validity  of  the  election.^  But  Urban  himself  knew  as  well 
as  any  man  the  peculiar  circumstances  which  had  attended 
his  elevation.  He  was  fully  aware  of  the  contentions  which 
divided  the  sacred  college,  of  the  motives  which  had  led  the 
cardinals  to  give  their  suffrages  to  an  outsider.  Had  he 
been  of  politic  mind,  he  would  have  given  some  thought  to 
the  conciliation  of  the  cardinals,  at  any  rate  during  the  first 
months  of  his  pontificate,  in  order  to  consolidate  his  position.^ 
Though  not  a  cardinal,  he  had  lived  at  Avignon,  and  was  aware 
of  the  weight  and  influence  of  the  College ;  he  knew  that  the 
cardinals  considered  themselves  the  equals  of  kings,  and  that 
they  were  everywhere  treated  with  the  utmost  respect  and 
ceremony.  He  knew  also  that  many  of  them  expected  him 
to  return  to  Avignon.^  He  was  resolved  not  to  return,  and 
herein  he  was  right ;  but  he  might  have  shown  consideration 
and  sympathy  for  the  lofty  dignitaries  whose  wishes  he  was 
thwarting,  who  had  raised  him  to  be  the  spiritual  Lord  of 
Christendom.  He  showed  none ;  he  was  habitually  rude  and 
insulting  to  the  members  of  the  sacred  College  ;  *  he  abused 
and  stormed  at  them  ;  he  called  them  fools  and  liars  ;  he 
sprang  from  his  seat,  intending  to  attack  one  of  them  ;  he 
threatened  to  swamp  their  influence  by  creating  new  Italian 
cardinals.  They  had  thought  that  he  would  be  their  creature, 
ready  to  do  whatever  they  wished  ;  but  he,  on  the  other  hand, 
relying  on  the  sympathy  of  the  Romans,  soon  showed  that 
he  had  played  a  humble  part  long  enough,  that  he  was  now 
Pope  and  was  determined  to  be  absolute  master.  He  was 
brutally  overbearing  and  insolent  to  the  Cardinal  of  Amiens, 
who  had  taken  no  part  in  the  election,  but  who  returned  on 
Low  Sunday,  April  25th,  to  report  the  result  of  the  negotia- 
tions which  he  had  conducted  with  Florence,  after  the  war  of 

1  Hefele,  vi.  788.  '-  Erler,  46. 

^  Hefele,  vi.  783.  ■*  De  Sihismajte,  17,  20, 


THE  GREAT  SCHISM  111 

the  republics  against  Holy  Church.  The  Pope  charged  the 
Cardinal  with  destroying  the  peace  of  the  world  by  his 
treacherous  diplomacy  ;  the  angry  Cardinal  retorted  that  had 
it  been  merely  the  Archbishop  of  Bari  who  said  so,  he  would 
have  told  him  that  he  lied  in  his  throat.^  The  insult  to  his 
honour  rankled  in  the  proud  Frenchman's  breast ;  it  was  he 
who  afterwards  first  suggested  to  his  colleagues  that  the 
election  of  Urban  might  be  declared  void. 

Nevertheless,  from  April  on  to  July  the  cardinals  recognised 
Urban  as  Pope,"  and  breathed  not  a  word  of  doubt  as  to  the 
validity  of  their  choice.  In  electing  him  they  had  made  a  mis- 
take, and  too  late  thev  discovered  their  error.  To  repair  it, 
they  resolved  wilfully  to  sacrifice  the  welfare  of  Christendom. 
Under  the  pretext  of  escaping  from  the  heat  they  obtained 
permission  to  leave  Rome,  and  betook  themselves  to  Agnani. 
The  chamberlain,  Pierre  de  Cros,  who  had  charge  of  the  tiara 
and  the  papal  ornaments,  took  them  with  him  and  accom- 
panied the  cardinals.  Pedro  de  Luna,  who  had  backed  up 
Urban  all  through,  was  the  last  to  go.^  From  Agnani  they 
wrote  to  the  four  Italian  cardinals  who  still  remained  at 
Rome,  pointing  out  that  the  recent  election  had  been  forced 
and  irregular,  and  was  therefore  void.  Three  of  the  four 
joined  them  ;  old  Tebaldeschi  died.  Urban,  utterly  abandoned, 
wept  and  recognised  his  own  folly  now  that  it  was  too  late.* 
All  the  cardinals  who  had  elected  him  were  now  banded 
together  against  him.  He  determined,  if  possible,  to  check- 
mate them,  and  on  the  18th  September  he  created  twenty- 
six  new  cardinals,  several  of  whom  refused  the  proffered 
honour.  Two  days  later  the  old  cardinals,  who  had  mean- 
time moved  to  Fondi  for  greater  security — Urban  having 
quarrelled  with  the  Count  of  Fondi — elected  Robert  of 
Geneva,  the  perpetrator  of  the  bloody  massacre  of  Cesena,  as 
Pope.  He  took  the  style  of  Clement  the  Seventh.  Thus 
arose  the  Great  Schism. 

To  us  at  the  present  day,  as  we  read  the  history  and 
consider  the  circumstances  of  the  time,  it  may  not  be  surpris- 
ing that  there  should  thus  have  arisen  two  rival  Popes ;  but 

1  Hefele,  vi.  782.  2  /^^^  yi  7^5. 

^  Gardner,  72.  *  De  Schismate,  28. 


112     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

to  the  ordinary  unlettered  man  of  the  Middle  Ages  it  was 
incomprehensible  and  inexplicable,  a  thing  of  wonder  and 
amazement.  There  had  been  anti-popes  before,  but  never 
before  had  there  been  two  Popes  elected  by  the  same,  or 
practically  the  same,  body  of  cardinals.  The  unity  of  the 
Holy  Roman  Empire,  considering  the  portions  that  had  been 
reft  from  it,  considering  also  the  growing  rivalry  of  inde- 
pendent nations,  might  have  become  almost  a  lost  idea  ;  but 
the  Unity  of  the  Papacy  had  hitherto  remained  secure  and 
unshaken,  a  fixed  rock  on  which  the  faith  of  Christendom 
was  founded.  There  could,  men  thought,  be  but  one  head 
of  the  Church  on  earth,  even  as  there  was  but  one  head  in 
Heaven,  The  clergy  everywhere  acknowledged  the  over- 
lordship  of  one  Pope.  Bishops  everywhere  were  collated, 
many  were  directly  appointed  by  him.  Peter's  Pence  still 
flowed  in  from  the  northern  nations  of  Europe,  the  tribute  of 
the  humblest  Christians  to  their  one  Father.  The  regular 
clergy  acknowledged  the  one  Pope  as  their  head,  and  knew 
no  other  superior  outside  their  convent  walls.  Pardoners 
traversed  all  countries  selling  indulgences  which  they  claimed 
to  have  obtained  direct  from  the  Pope.  The  wandering 
friars  brought  his  name  home  to  the  poorest  and  meanest. 
Every  man  in  Christendom  knew  that  there  was  one  Pope, 
one  supreme  Father  over  the  hearts  of  all  true  believers. 
But  now  that  the  Schism  had  begun,  now  that  there  were 
two  Popes,  the  prospect  to  a  lowly  Christian  soul  must  have 
been  awful  in  its  perplexity.  Each  of  the  rival  pontiffs 
hurled  his  thunders  of  anathema  against  the  other,  each  ex- 
communicated the  other  and  all  who  adhered  to  him.  That 
the  rightful  Pope  had  the  power  of  consigning  the  victims  of 
his  denunciations  to  everlasting  damnation  no  true  Christian 
ventured  to  doubt.  But  who  held  this  power  ?  who  was  the 
rio-htful  Pope  ?  In  the  heart  of  a  kingdom  a  man  might  be 
content  to  follow  without  question  the  faith  of  his  ruler; 
the  German  and  the  Englishman  would  believe  in  Urban, 
the  Frenchman  and  the  Scot  would  believe  in  Clement,  but 
on  the  borders,  where  one  village  owned  one  obedience  and 
the  next  owned  another,  the  doubt  and  dismay  must  at  times 
have  been  heartrending.      Even  where  one  Pope  was  generally 


THE  GREAT  SCHISM  113 

acknowledged,  there  was  always  ^  some  town  or  community 
which  held  for  his  rival ;  often  there  was  a  division  in  the 
same  town  or  even  in  the  same  house  ;  so  that  no  one  could 
find  peace  or  rest  on  either  side,  and  men's  consciences  were 
troubled  by  doubt  as  to  which  was  the  true  Head  of  the 
Church,  and  on  which  side  one  could  render  to  God  real  and 
acceptable  service." 

In  the  political  and  ecclesiastical  worlds  the  Great  Schism 
introduced  a  new  element  of  discord.  France  held  for 
Clement,  England  for  Urban.  Scotland  precipitately,  Castile, 
Aragon,  and  Navarre  more  deliberately  and  independently, 
followed  the  lead  of  France.  Portugal,  vacillating  with  the 
event  of  war,  eventually  embraced  the  cause  of  Urban.  In 
the  Levant  the  powerful  influence  of  Venice  and  of  Genoa 
was  exercised  for  the  Pope  at  Rome ;  but  Clement  was  not 
without  followers  in  Corfu,  in  Albania,  in  Morea,  in  the 
Island  of  Cyprus,  and  among  the  cavaliers  of  Saint  John  of 
Jerusalem.^  Charles  the  Fifth  had  fondly  hoped  to  gain  the 
adherence  of  Germany  for  Clement,  but  to  King  Wenzel  and 
to  Germany  generally  the  legitimacy  of  Pope  Urban  was  as 
clear  as  the  sun  at  noonday  :  Prokop  of  Moravia,  however, 
thought  otherwise  ;  so  too  did  the  Duke  of  Juliers,  the  Count 
de  la  Marck,  the  Count  of  Cleves,  possibly  also  Albert  of 
Bavaria.  Flanders  consulted  the  doctors  of  Bologna  and 
pronounced  for  Urban  ;  then  followed  the  indecisive  crusade 
of  Bishop  Despenser  of  Norwich  (1383),  when  the  Urbanists 
donned  the  white  bonnet  with  the  red  cross  ;  this  was  suc- 
ceeded next  year  by  the  death  of  Louis  de  Male,  Count  of 
Flanders,  and  the  accession  of  the  Duke  of  Burgundy  :  Philip 
the  Bold  was  a  Clementist,  and  used  his  influence  for  Pope 
Clement,  but  he  left  his  new  subjects  free  to  follow  their 
own  convictions.*  Duke  Leopold  of  Austria  sold  himself  for 
a  price  to  Pope  Clement  ;  but  the  fatal  day  of  Sempach  (9th 
July  1386)  restored  his  dominions,  Styria,  Carinthia,  the 
Tirol,  Austria,  Switzerland,  Swabia,  and  Alsace,  to  the 
obedience  of  Pope  Urban.  Holland,  Luxemburg,  Brabant, 
Hainault,  Lorraine,  and  Savoy  all  acknowledged  Clement  as 
the  rightful   Pope.      King  Louis  the  Great  of  Hungary  was 

^  Lenfant,  i.  50.         •^  Schwab,  155.       ^  Valois,  ii.  218.         *  Ibid.  ii.  252. 

H 


114     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

on  the  side  of  Urban  ;  his  sister-in-law,  Joanna  of  Naples, 
soon  took  that  of  Clement.  The  Duke  of  Mecklenburg  and 
the  King  of  Norway  were  contending  for  the  crown  of  Sweden 
and  Denmark  ;  Norway  adhered  to  Clement,  his  opponent  to 
Urban.  In  Naples,  where  the  childless  queen  Joanna  had 
married  her  fourth  husband.  Pope  Urban  the  Sixth,  who  had 
no  desire  to  see  the  country  pass  into  German  hands,  refused 
to  crown  Otto,  Duke  of  Brunswick,  and  treated  him  with 
studied  insolence.^  This  alienated  the  queen,  who  passed 
over  to  the  Clementine  faction,  and  subsequently  adopted  the 
Duke  of  Anjou.  Urban  favoured  at  first  the  party  of  her 
rival,  Charles  of  Durazzo,  until  he  quarrelled  with  him  and 
excommunicated  him  ;  in  Naples  the  party  of  Ladislas,  son 
of  Charles  of  Durazzo,  became  ultimately  the  Roman  party, 
while  that  of  the  Duke  of  Anjou  remained  throughout 
Clementine.  In  ecclesiastical  appointments  the  same  division 
occurred.  Adolf  of  Nassau,  Archbishop  of  Mainz,  declared 
at  first  for  Clement ;  the  Archbishops  of  Cologne  and  Trier 
declared  for  Urban.  Where  an  election  was  disputed,  it 
goes  without  saying  that  one  candidate  was  on  the  side  of 
one  Pope  and  his  rival  on  the  side  of  the  other  :  this  was 
the  case  in  Liege,  in  Basel,  in  Metz,  in  Constance,  in  Chur, 
in  Lubeck,  and  in  other  bishoprics.^ 

France,  more  than  any  other  country,  had  been  responsible 
for  the  Schism.  Urban  the  Sixth  was  crowned  on  Easter 
Sunday  1 378  ;  before  the  end  of  May  a  sergeant-at-arms 
and  four  of  his  secretaries  brought  the  news  to  King  Charles 
the  Fifth  ;  they  were  followed  next  month  by  four  persons 
attached  to  certain  of  the  cardinals  ;  and  shortly  afterwards 
the  discontented  cardinals  themselves,  and  among  them  the 
King's  old  counsellor,  Jean  de  la  Grange,  Cardinal  of  Amiens, 
who  had  been  so  grossly  insulted  by  Urban,  wrote  to  Charles 
warning  him  to  give  no  credence  to  the  official  account  of 
the  Pope's  election.  Urban  himself  sent  two  messengers, 
Francesco  Tortello  and  Pierre  de  Murles  ;  but  the  latter  was 
a  secret  envoy  of  the  cardinals.^  In  August  the  cardinals 
sent  from  Agnani  a  messenger,  Jean  de  Guignicourt,  to 
announce  officially  to  the   King  that  the  election  of  Urban 

^  De  SckismatCi  19.  -  Lindner  {IV.),  i.  93.  ^  Valois,  i.  91. 


THE  GREAT  SCHISM  115 

had  been  null  and  void.  Charles  sent  the  sum  of  twenty 
thousand  francs  for  their  assistance ;  he  wrote  also  to  Queen 
Joanna  of  Naples  to  offer  them  shelter  in  case  of  need  ;  he 
assured  the  cardinals  themselves  of  his  goodwill,  and  his 
letter  reached  them  two  days  before  they  elected  Robert  of 
Geneva.  All  this  was  done  by  the  King  before  the  clergy 
of  France  were  consulted,  before  any  official  declaration  of 
policy  was  made.  For  several  months  the  entire  kingdom  of 
France,  like  the  rest  of  Europe,  had  recognised  Urban  the 
Sixth  as  the  true  Pope ;  and  the  subsequent  recognition  of 
Clement  the  Seventh  was  not  universal  in  France,  and  met 
with  special  opposition  in  Normandy.^  If  the  King  of 
France  did  not  exercise  any  direct  pressure  on  the  cardinals, 
if  independently  of  his  action  the  Schism  would  certainly 
have  occurred,  still  he  was  undoubtedly  an  accessory  after  the 
fact.^  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Charles  the  Fifth,  being 
persuaded  of  the  validity  of  Clement's  election,  hoped  to  get 
him  recognised  not  only  by  the  Celtic  nations,  but  by  nearly 
all  the  Christian  nations  of  Europe,  and  that  he  counted  in 
particular  on  his  good  relations  with  the  German  Empire  : 
had  he  lived  to  continue  his  cautious,  able,  and  persevering 
policy,  the  result  might  possibly  have  been  eventually  other 
than  it  was.  But  Charles  died  on  the  16th  September  1380, 
and  the  Schism  became  established.  In  the  eyes  of  the  other 
nations  of  Europe  too,  France  was  responsible  for  the  Schism. 
To  them  the  captivity  of  the  Popes  at  Avignon  had  rendered 
the  Pope  the  confederate,  the  willing  servant,  almost  the 
tool,  of  the  King  of  France.  The  later  Avignonese  Popes 
had  indeed  been  much  more  independent  than  they  had  had 
popular  credit  for ;  but  their  position  in  the  Provencal 
country,  within  easy  access  of  France,  and  far  removed  from 
the  influence  of  Italy  and  Germany,  was  fatal  to  their  credit 
as  the  impartial  head  of  Christendom.  "When  they  removed 
to  Rome  again,  the  French  influence  was  necessarily  and 
visibly  diminished  ;  and  men  generally  believed  that  it  was 
to  regain  the  lost  influence  that  France  had  fostered  the 
Schism. 

The  real  authors  of  the  Schism  were  the  cardinals.      To 

^  Lavisse,  iv.  i.  261.  '  Valois,  i.  144. 


116     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

excuse  themselves  they  accused  themselves  of  a  pitiful 
cowardice  which  Cardinal  Orsiiii,  Pedro  de  Luna,  and  others 
of  their  number  certainly  never  felt.  To  attribute  the  elec- 
tion of  Urban  to  coercion  and  intimidation  was  absurd,  in 
the  case  of  fighting  men  like  Robert  of  Geneva  and  Gerard 
de  Puy.  The  great  majority  of  the  cardinals  were  French- 
men, and  the  old  pleasant  days  at  Avignon  beckoned  them 
back  to  the  sinful  city.  The  prospect  of  a  life  in  Italy,  in  a 
ruinous  city,  amid  a  turbulent  populace,  under  the  thumb  of 
an  unmannerly,  overbearing  pontiff  who  might  at  any  moment 
treat  any  of  them  with  the  brutal  harshness  which  he 
manifested  subsequently  in  the  case  of  the  six  cardinals  whom 
he  accused  of  conspiracy,^  was  not  alluring.  There  had  been 
enough  violence  and  tumult  to  give  colour  to  the  plea  that 
the  election  was  forced  and  not  free,  and  they  determined  to 
avail  themselves  of  this  plea.  To  their  own  greed  and 
welfare  they  sacrificed  the  interest  of  the  Church,  and  brought 
on  her  a  grievous  affliction  of  which  no  one  could  foresee  the 
issue.  The  cardinals  were  the  real,  France  was  the  ostensible, 
author  of  the  Great  Schism. 

While  the  Great  Schism,  the  greatest  affliction  which  had 
ever  befallen  her  since  the  degenerate  days  of  the  Harlots, 
was  thus  beginning  to  desolate  the  Church,  there  were  every- 
where apparent  through  the  countries  of  Western  Europe 
the  signs  of  conflict  and  distress.  The  prosperity  which  had 
attended  the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century  had  disappeared  ; 
much  of  the  Continent  was  in  a  state  of  very  slow  recovery 
fi-om  long-continued  war — from  war  which  meant  the  burning 
of  churches  and  homesteads,  the  destruction  of  crops,  the 
houghing  and  harrying  of  cattle,  the  murder  of  peasants  and 
burghers  from  whom  no  ransom  could  be  expected.  By  the 
end  of  the  century  England,  France,  Spain,  and  the  Scandi- 
navian countries  had  all  been  troubled  by  wars  of  succession. 
Black  Margaret,  the  daughter  of  King  Waldemar,  in  1397 
succeeded  in  uniting  Norway,  Sweden,  and  Denmark  under 
her  single  rule.  In  the  Spanish  peninsula  the  struggle  was 
of  older  date  and  of  longer  continuance.  Alfonso  the 
Eleventh  of  Castile  at  his  death  left  a  legitimate  son,  Pedro 
1  Lindner  (fV.),  i.  253. 


THE  GREAT  SCHISM  117 

the  Cruel,  by  his  wife  Mary  of  Portugal,  and  an  illegitimate 
son,  Henry  of  Trastamara,  by  his  leman,  the  beautiful 
Eleanor  de  Guzman.  In  Spain  a  bastard  always  stood  a 
better  chance  of  recognition  and  succession  than  in  the 
Teutonic  lands,  and  although  Pedro  won  the  crown  of  Castile 
for  his  own  lifetime,  Henry  of  Trastamara  succeeded  him. 
On  his  death,  however,  in  1379,  a  fresh  war  broke  out,  in 
which  the  title  of  Henry's  son,  John,  was  contested  by  the 
King  of  Portugal  and  by  the  Duke  of  Lancaster.  One  of 
John  of  Gaunt's  daughters  was  nian'ied  to  the  King  of  Portu- 
gal, but  the  ambitious  duke  did  not  scruple  to  desert  his  son- 
in-law,  to  marry  another  daughter  to  the  son  of  the  reigning 
King  of  Castile,  and  to  conclude  peace  (1387).  Aragon  was 
spared  for  the  present  its  war  of  succession  ;  it  was  soon  to 
come.  Navarre  was  ruled  by  the  French  prince  Charles  the 
Bad,  a  traitor  to  his  own  country,  a  friend  to  Edward  the 
Third  ;  he  died  in  1387.  On  the  east  of  the  Empire  the 
Teutonic  Order  of  knights  had  by  the  force  of  the  sword 
converted  to  the  true  faith  much  of  heathen  Prussia ;  and 
the  Poles  and  Lithuanians  had  nominally  embraced  Christi- 
anity when  their  king,  Jagello,  christened  Ladislas  at  his 
baptism,  had  married  the  beautiful  Hedwig,  the  youngest 
daughter  of  the  late  mighty  King  of  Hungary,  Louis  the 
Great,  who  died  in  1382. 

The  three  most  powerful  kingdoms  of  Western  Europe, 
England,  France,  and  Germany,  had  by  the  year  1380  fallen 
to  three  boys,  each  of  whom  succeeded  a  firm  and  powerful 
sovereign  who  had  done  much  to  win  for  his  countrv  the 
position  which  it  held  and  the  respect  which  it  inspired.  In 
1377  Richard  the  Second,  'born  without  a  skin,  and 
nourished  in  the  skins  of  goats,'  had  succeeded  his  grand- 
father at  the  age  of  ten  ;  in  Germany,  Wenzel  had  at  the  age 
of  sixteen,  in  1378,  succeeded  his  father  Charles  the  Fourth  ; 
and  in  France,  two  years  later,  Charles  the  Sixth  had 
succeeded  his  father  Charles  the  Fifth,  deservedly  known  as 
Charles  le  Sage.  Edward  the  Third  of  England  was  a 
warrior  who  had  brought  great  gain  and  glory  to  his  own 
country,  and  who  had  wrought  untold  woe  on  France  by 
prosecuting  his  claim  to  the  French  crown  ;   but  the  war  had 


118     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

languished  since  the  Peace  of  Bretigny  (1360),  and  Charles 
the  Fifth,  by  his  policy  of  masterly  inactivity  and  his  care 
and  economy,  had  done  much  toward  the  recovery  of  France. 
Even  after  his  death  and  up  to  the  close  of  the  century  peace 
continued  for  the  most  part  unbroken ;  and  the  untiring 
industry  and  patient  thrift,  which  then  as  now  characterised 
the  French  peasant,  began  to  work  an  improvement ;  agricul- 
ture and  industry  recovered,  the  barns  which  had  been  burned 
down  were  rebuilt,  the  vines  were  replanted,  the  fields  were 
again  covered  with  crops.^  But  the  improvement  was  not  for 
long ;  the  old  reign  of  misery  was  to  recommence  with  the 
cruel  civil  war  which  broke  out  between  the  Orleanists  and 
the  Armagnacs. 

The  three  young  kings  had  each  a  hard  game  to  play. 
Richard  and  Charles  were  left  under  the  tutelage  of  their 
uncles,  and  each  of  their  uncles  had  his  own  separate  selfish 
policy.  Each  of  the  three  boys  was  handsome  and  lovable  ; 
each  at  times  displayed  a  kingly  vigour ;  but  each  was  doomed 
to  give  way  to  periods  of  inaction  and  to  bouts  of  self- 
indulgence.  Richard  the  Second  was  beautiful  and  pleasure- 
loving,  like  his  mother,  the  Fair  Maid  of  Kent.  Charles  the 
Sixth  loved  his  people,  and  was  loved  by  them  his  whole  life 
through  ;  but  he  was  ruined  and  maddened  by  sensuality  and 
voluptuousness,  by  the  nights  and  days  of  feasting  and 
debauchery  into  which  he  was  plunged  by  his  uncles. 
Marriage  produced  no  improvement,  but  rather  deepened  the 
evil.  His  wife's  court  was  described  by  the  Augustine  monk, 
Legrand,  as  the  court  of  Venus,  served  by  drunkenness  and 
debauchery,  and  where  night  was  turned  into  day  by  the  most 
dissolute  dances.^  The  continued  tax  on  his  strength  broke 
him  down.  A  melancholy  madness  seized  the  King  in  1392, 
which  rendered  him  incapable  of  government  for  lengthened 
intervals  thereafter;  it  was  attributed  by  the  people  to 
sorcery.  It  was  recognised  by  all  that  the  King  of  France 
was  but  a  madman  with  lucid  intervals.  He  was  betrayed 
by  his  wife,  the  beautiful,  but  soon  somewhat  corpulent, 
Isabel  of  Bavaria,  but  was  so  fairly  entreated  by  his  '  sweet 
sister,'  Valentine  Visconti,  that  all  men  deemed  that  she  by 
1  Sismondi  {F.),  xii.  171  ;  Martin,  v.  469.  '■^  Religitux,  iii.  268. 


THE  GREAT  SCHISM  119 

sorcery  had  bereft  hiui  of  reason.  The  King's  madness  not 
only  delivered  the  kingdom  to  the  selfish  intrigues  of  his 
uncles,  but  also  introduced  to  active  life  his  younger  brother, 
the  handsome  Louis  of  Orleans,  the  inconstant  husband  of 
the  beauteous  Milanese,  a  far  more  attractive  and  brilliant 
figure  than  the  Duke  of  Berri  or  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  but 
equally  devoted  to  his  own  selfish  aims,  and  equally  regardless 
of  the  welfare  of  France.  From  this  time  the  kingdom  was  a 
prey,  in  the  intervals  of  Charles's  insanity,  to  his  uncles  and 
his  brother,  and  the  factions  were  already  forming  which  were 
to  become  notorious  as  the  Burgundians  and  Armagnacs. 

In  Germany  the  astute  Emperor  Charles  the  Fourth   had 
been    pre-eminently    a    peacemaker,    and    had    succeeded    in 
establishing    the    imperial     authority    over    the    numberless 
particles  which    made  up   the  grand,   but  ill-assorted.   Holy 
Romano-Germanic    Empire.       When    Charles    died,   his    son 
Wenzel   reigned   well   and  tolerably   wisely  for  the  first  ten 
years,  although  he  sacrificed  his  own  interest  and  the  interest 
of  the  Empire  in   helping  his  half-brother  Sigismund,  whom 
he  loved,  but  who  repaid  his  love  and  sacrifice  with  the  basest 
ingratitude ;  it  was  after  the  first  ten  years  of  his  reign  had 
elapsed  that  Wenzel   gave  way  to  slothfulness  and  drink.      It 
was  while  he  was  thus  inefficient  that,  at  the  further  side  of 
Europe,   the   Osmanlis    had   entered    the  continent,  and   the 
Greek  Empire  was  tottering  to  its  fall ;  the  Emperor  Manuel 
was  a  suppliant  for  aid  at  the  courts  of  Venice,  Paris,  and 
London.      It  was  the  recognised  task  of  the  Emperor  of  the 
Holy    Roman   Empire    to    defend    Christendom    against  the 
Turk  ;  but  the  work  now  fell  on  the  shoulders  of  the  stalwart 
young  warrior,  Sigismund   of  Hungary.      He  tried  to   make 
headway  against   the  misbelievers  ;  a  crusade  was  preached, 
and   the   King  raised  a  mighty  army  ;  he  was  joined   by  the 
flower  of  the  French  chivah-y  under  John   of  Nevers,  eldest 
son  of  the  Duke  of  Burgundy  ;  by  the  Germans  under  Count 
Rupert   of   the   Palatine,  Count   Hermann   of  Cilly,  John   of 
Nuernberg,   and    others ;   by    contingents    from    Poland    and 
Wallachia ;    by  crusaders   from   England   under  their  future 
king ;  by  the  fleets  of  Venice  and  the  Chevaliers  of  Rhodes. 
Through   the  impetuous  folly  and  vanity  of  the  French,  who 


120     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

set  at  nought  the  superior  knowledge  and  advice  of  Sigismund, 
the  whole  of  this  magnificent  army  was  defeated  at  the  battle 
of  Nicopolis  (1396)  with  such  overwhelming  loss  that  Eastern 
Europe  appeared  to  lie  at  the  mercy  of  the  infidel. 

Four  years  later  the  succession  to  the  Holy  Roman  Empire, 
the  highest  temporal  power  then  known  to  the  civilised  world, 
was  in  dispute.  The  story  will  be  told  more  in  detail  later 
on.  It  is  only  necessary  to  refer  to  it  here  to  complete  a 
brief  sketch  of  the  state  of  Europe  at  the  end  of  the  four- 
teenth century.  Wenzel's  apathy  and  disregard  of  the  affairs 
of  the  Empire  had  disgusted  certain  of  the  Electors ;  he  had 
neglected  imperial  interests  in  Flanders,  he  had  sold  the  duchy 
of  Milan  for  a  price,  he  had  not  terminated  the  Great  Schism 
which  afflicted  the  Church  ;  therefore  the  four  Electors  of 
the  Rhine,  the  other  three  holding  aloof,  called  upon  him  to 
appear  and  to  answer  these  charges.  It  was  true  that  Wenzel 
had  fallen  wofully  from  his  first  estate.  Originally  of  a  good 
disposition  and  most  carefully  educated  by  his  father,  he 
had  allowed  himself  to  fall  under  the  influence  of  low-born 
favourites,  and  had  given  way  to  sloth  and  indecision  ;  he  had 
become  a  sot,  plagued  with  a  thirst  which  was  popularly 
attributed  to  the  dregs  of  poison  lurking  in  his  system  ;  he 
had  sold  the  freedom  of  a  city  for  four  hundred  tuns  of  wine 
annually  ;  he  had  loved  with  an  engrossing,  inordinate  love 
Bohemian  lasses  and  Bohemian  beer  ;  he  had  proved  himself, 
and  he  was  conscious  that  he  was,  utterly  incapable  of  manag- 
ing the  affairs  of  a  great  Empire.  But  he  was  tenacious  of 
his  dignity,  and  he  could  appoint  a  regent  to  do  the  work. 
The  three  archbishops  of  the  Rhine  and  the  Count  Palatine 
met  at  the  little  white  chapel  which  still  overlooks  the  con- 
fluence of  the  Lahn  and  the  Rhine,  and  they  solemnly 
deposed  Wenzel ;  next  day  the  three  archbishops,  one  holding 
the  proxy  of  the  Count  Palatine,  crossed  the  river  to  Rense, 
and  at  the  Koenigstuhl  under  the  walnut-trees,  on  the  left 
bank  of  the  Rhine — the  platform  which  had  been  built  by 
Charles  the  Fourth  as  being  within  call  of  four  electorates,  the 
platform  which  was  used  on  this  occasion  and  never  again — 
they  proclaimed  Rupert,  Count  Palatine,  to  be  henceforth 
King  of  the  Jlomans  ai)d  future  Emperor  of  the  Holy  Roman 


THE  GREAT  SCHISM  121 

Empire.  Wenzel  refused  to  recognise  the  deposition  or  to 
give  up  the  regalia  ;  there  were  henceforth  two  kings  in  Ger- 
many, and  a  schism  was  produced  which  lasted  through  the 
first  ten  years  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

Italy  was  a  land  apart,  utterly  different  from  every  other 
country  in  Europe.  In  culture,  in  intellect,  in  imagination 
she  was  far  ahead  of  them  all.  The  old  classical  authors 
were  read,  loved,  and  imitated.  Where  other  countries  were 
making  puny,  childlike  efforts  toward  art  and  culture,  the 
endeavours  of  Italy  were  great,  almost  Titanic.  Dante, 
Petrarch,  and  Boccaccio,  three  names  to  resound  for  ages, 
had  appeared  and  had  passed  away,  taking  their  seats  among 
the  immortals.  Cimabue  and  Giotto  had  founded  the  modern 
school  of  Italian  painting.  Nicolo  Pisano  had  carved  the 
famous  pulpit  in  the  Baptistery  at  Pisa  and  had  left  a  school 
of  sculptors  behind  him.  In  architecture,  in  which  the  pre- 
eminence of  Italy  was  perhaps  less  marked,  it  is  enough  to 
mention  such  buildings  as  the  Duomo  at  Florence,  the 
Cathedral  of  Milan,  the  Doges'  Palace  at  Venice,  the  Palazzo 
Municipale  of  Piacenza.  But  if  the  upper  classes  of  Italy 
were  far  in  advance  of  those  of  other  countries  in  culture  and 
intellect,  they  fell  far  behind  them  in  morality  and  their 
conduct  of  life.  Public  and  private  morality  alike  were 
utterly  dissociated  from  religion  among  the  upper  classes,^ 
from  superstition  among  the  lower,  and  had  practically  ceased 
to  exist.  Political  assassination,  which  roused  such  horror 
and  called  for  such  long-winded  defence  in  France,  whence  it 
was  ultimately  refeiTed  to  the  Council  of  Constance,  was 
taken  as  a  matter  of  course  in  Italy  ;  if  a  man  was  in  the 
way,  it  was  only  natural,  if  it  were  possible,  to  remove  him 
by  poison  or  the  stiletto.  Treachery  was  of  common  occur- 
rence, both  in  public  and  in  private  life ;  loyalty  was  a  plant 
of  slow  growth  in  Italian  soil.  Female  honour  was  lightly 
esteemed  in  many  nations,  but  nowhere  more  lightly  than  in 
Italy  ;  rape  was  an  ordinary  incident  of  everyday  life.  The 
Italian  nobility  unhappily  lacked  two  motives  which  were 
all-powerful  in  other  nations,  the  point  of  honour  and  the 
fear  of  God.  Chivalry  had  never  struck  root  in  Italy,  and 
*  Symonds,  i.  350. 


122     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

the  chivalrous  sense  of  honour  was  unknown.^      Nor  did  their 
men  of  thought  turn  to  religion  ;  art,  scholarship,  political 
science,  and    philosophy  occupied  their  minds,  but  towards 
religious  questions  they  evinced  an  intellectual  apathy  ;  they 
feared  to  sin  against  the  law  of  culture  more  than  against  the 
law  of  Christ.      It  is  not  wonderful  that  under  these  condi- 
tions vice  was  rampant.      It  was  as  easy  to  sin  in  Italy  as  to 
put  on  your  shoes  or  slippers  in  London.    State  officers  main- 
tained brothels ;  priests  acted  as  panders  and  kept  houses  of 
bad  repute.      The  courtesans  of  Venice  were  noted   through 
Europe   for   their    numbers,   their    beauty,   their   grace    and 
accomplishments,    their    manifold    arts    of    dalliance.       The 
Italian  required  the  '  fascination  of  the  fancy  to  be  added  to 
the  allurement  of  the  senses ' ;  ^  he  endeavoured  to  spiritualise 
abominable  vices.      But   while  in  all  these  points  Italy  was 
the  shame  of  Europe,  in  other  points  she   was  its  exemplar. 
The  middle-classes  believed  before  all  things  in  money  and  in 
money- making.    They  were  shrewd  men  of  business ;  and  the 
nobles  did  not  disdain  to  take  their  part  in  commerce,  navi- 
gation, and  industry.      The  merchants  of  Venice  and   Genoa 
traded  not  only  with  the  Levant,  but  also  with  South  Germany 
and  other  parts  of  inland  Europe.      Ancona  and   Rimini  on 
the  eastern  coast,  Pisa  and  Amalfi  on  the  western,  were  mer- 
chant ports  of  considerable  importance.     Milan  and  Florence 
were  noted  for  their  banking-houses  ;  the  Bardi,  the  Peruzzi, 
and  others  financed  Edward  the  Third   of  England  and   the 
King  of  Sicily  as  the  same  houses  had   financed  Charles  of 
Anjou.       The    commercial    integrity  of   the  Italian   bankers 
stood  very  high  throughout  Europe.      It  is  unnecessary  to  do 
more  than  mention  the  industrial  guilds  of  Florence,  the  silk- 
weavers  of  Lucca,  the  armourers  of  Milan,  the  workers  in  oil 
and  in  wool,  and  the  like.    The  Italian  cities  had  succeeded  in 
doing  what  the  German  cities  were  striving  hard  to  accom- 
plish :   they  had  won  a  right  of  independent  self-development, 
but  the  right  was  marred  by  the  despotisms  and   tyrannies 
under  which  they  had  in  many  instances  fallen  ;  it  was  also 
distinguished  by  the  fact  that  the  Italian  cities  had  absorbed 
into  their  rule  the  surrounding  country  in  a  manner   which 
^  Symonds,  i.  378.  ^  Ibid.  i.  372. 


THE  GREAT  SCHISM  128 

the  German  Free  States  never  attempted.  The  people  had 
thus  enjoyed  centuries  of  wealth  and  civilisation  in  great 
cities  while  the  northern  races  had  remained  in  a  state  of 
comparative  poverty  and  barbarism.  With  respect  to  the 
lower  classes,  the  dictum  of  a  celebrated  scholar  may  safely  be 
accepted,  that  if  the  artists  of  Italy,  '  not  few  of  whom  were 
born  in  cottages  and  educated  in  workshops,  could  feel  and 
think  and  fashion  as  they  did,  we  cannot  doubt  that  their 
mothers  and  their  friends  were  pure  and  pious,  and  that  the 
race  which  gave  them  to  the  world  was  not  depraved.  .  .  . 
Italian  art  alone  suffices  to  prove,'  says  Symonds,^  '  that  the 
immorality  of  the  age  descended  from  the  upper  stratum  of 
society  downwards.'  Italian  soldiers  and  the  lower  classes 
generally  were  not  so  ignorant  and  gross  as  those  of  England  ; 
they  were  less  cruel  and  inhuman  than  those  of  Spain  ;  they 
were  not  gluttons  and  drunkards  as  were  those  of  Germany  ; 
they  took  no  delight  in  brawls  and  bloodshed  as  did  the 
Switzers ;  they  were  more  sober  and  courteous  than  the 
French." 

In  its  political  development  also  Italy  differed  from  the 
rest  of  Europe.  In  the  twelfth  century  the  whole  of  Upper 
and  Central  Italy  was  split  up  into  a  number  of  little  repub- 
lics, somewhat  resembling  the  cities  of  ancient  Greece  or  the 
free  states  of  Germany.  The  passion  for  self-development 
was  everywhere  the  ruling  motive.  They  were  impatient  of 
control  by  Pope  or  Emperor ;  they  recognised  that  they 
formed  part  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire,  and  they  sought  no 
other  or  closer  bond  of  union.  Each  city  desired  to  develop 
its  own  particular  industry  or  commerce,  to  organise  itself  on 
its  own  social  lines,  to  expand  on  its  own  political  type ; 
availing  itself  of  its  existing  municipal  machinery,  it  sought 
to  secure  independence  and  to  place  the  government  in  the 
hands  of  its  own  citizens.  But  disturbing  forces,  factions 
within  and  wars  without,  entered  and  played  havoc,  until 
little  by  little  '  each  republic  in  turn  became  weaker,  more 
confused  in  policy,  more  mistrustful  of  itself  and  its  own 
citizens,  more  subdivided  into  petty  but  ineradicable  fations, 
until  at  last  it  fell  a  prey  either  to  some  foreign  potentate 
^  Symonds,  i.  383.  ^  Ihid.  i.  382. 


124     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

or  to  the  Church,  or  else  to  an  ambitious  family  among  its 
members.'  ^ 

By  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century  the  ruling  powers  in 
Italy  had  become  reduced  to  five  in  number.  The  Republic 
of  Genoa,  through  fear  of  the  Visconti  of  Milan,  had  in  1396 
surrendered  its  liberty  to  the  King  of  France,  and  was  no 
longer  independent  ;  the  French  Constable  Boucicaut  was 
lord  of  Genoa  and  of  the  sea  front  from  the  Western  Riviera 
round  to  Livorno  (Leghorn).  The  Duke  of  Milan  and  the 
Republic  of  Venice  divided  between  them  the  northern  part 
of  Italy  ;  the  Republic  of  Florence  and  the  Papal  States 
occupied  the  centre ;  the  Kingdom  of  Naples  formed  the 
south  of  the  peninsula. 

Naples  also  had  been  and  still  was  the  scene  of  a  disputed 
succession.  Charles  of  Anjou  had  been  called  in  by  the  Pope 
nearly  a  century  and  a  half  earlier  (1262)  to  expel  the 
Hohenstaufen  ;  he  had  won  for  himself  the  kingdom  of  the 
Two  Sicilies  ;  but  his  oppression  and  cruelty  had  driven  the 
Sicilians  to  revolt,  and  after  the  'Vespers'  (1282)  Sicily  was 
lost  and  Naples  alone  remained  to  the  House  of  Anjou.  In 
the  city  of  Naples  itself,  Frederic  the  Second,  the  grandson 
of  Barbarossa,  had  built  him  a  lordly  palace,  and  here  Charles 
of  Anjou,  and  his  son  and  grandson  after  him,  reigned  in 
undisputed  succession.  The  grandson,  Robert,  left  a  grand- 
daughter, Joanna,  who  succeeded  him.  She  married  her 
second  cousin,  Andrew ;  but  Andrew,  not  content  with  the 
position  of  a  prince-consort,  claimed  the  crown  in  his  own 
right,  on  the  ground  that  his  grandfather,  Charles  Martel, 
had  been  the  elder  brother  of  his  wife's  grandfather,  Robert. 
This  unfortunate  claim  cost  Andrew  his  life ;  and  Joanna 
married  Louis  of  Tarentum,  her  father  s  first  cousin,  who  was 
suspected  with  Joanna  herself  of  having  murdered  the  luckless 
Andrew.  Sixteen  years  later  Louis  died,  and  Joanna  married 
again;  and  finally,  in  1376,  she  married  for  the  fourth 
time,  but  she  had  no  children  by  any  of  her  husbands.  Her 
heir-presumptive  was  her  second  cousin,  Charles  of  Durazzo  ; 
but  the  Papal  Schism  had  now  commenced,  dividing  Chris- 
tendom, and  often  royal  families,  into  two  contending 
Symonds,  i.  155-6. 


THE  GREAT  SCHISM  125 

families.  This  had  happened  in  the  case  of  the  Anjou 
family ;  the  opposition  of  Pope  Urban  to  Queen  Joanna  had 
caused  an  important  change  in  Neapolitan  politics.  The 
Queen,  when  the  Pope  insulted  her  husband,  went  over  to 
the  French  side  ;  whereas  Charles  of  Durazzo  was  an  adherent 
of  Urban.  To  spite  Charles  and  to  defeat  his  expectations, 
Joanna,  on  the  29th  June  1380,  made  a  will,  whereby  she 
adopted  Louis,  Duke  of  Anjou,  brother  of  Charles  the  Fifth 
of  France,  as  her  heir  in  Italy,  in  Sicily,  and  in  France. 
Clement  the  Seventh  lost  no  time  in  confirming  her  dona- 
tion.^ The  King's  death  prevented  the  Duke  from  starting 
at  once  to  take  possession  of  his  new  kingdom  ;  he  had  first 
of  all  to  rob  France  of  the  necessary  funds  for  the  enterprise. 
Pope  Urban  wrote  to  Louis  of  Hungary,  urging  him  to 
punish  Joanna  for  the  murder  of  her  former  husband ;  the 
aged  monarch  passed  the  task  on  to  his  nephew,  Charles  of 
Durazzo.  The  adoption  by  Joanna,  letting  in  the  second 
house  of  Anjou,  provided  abundant  trouble  for  Italy  both  in 
the  near  and  in  the  distant  future.  Charles  accepted  his 
task  with  alacrity  ;  he  invaded  Naples,  defeated  the  Queen's 
husband,  captured  Joanna  herself — she  was  murdered  shortly 
afterwards — and  was  crowned  King  of  Naples  in  1382,  to 
the  joy  of  the  Neapolitans,  who  preferred  their  own  country- 
man as  Pope  to  the  Butcher  of  Cesena.  In  the  same  year 
Duke  Louis  of  Anjou,  having  provided  himself  with  money 
and  men,  brought  a  formidable  army  to  support  his  claim  ; 
but  delay,  disease,  and  starvation  played  havoc  with  his 
troops,  and  in  1384  the  Duke  himself  died.  Charles  of 
Durazzo  was  now  firmly  established  as  King  of  Naples.  Un- 
fortunately he  was  offered  the  crown  of  Hungary ;  he  went  to 
that  country,  gained  the  crown,  but  was  assassinated  in  June 
1386.  This  left  the  claim  to  the  crown  of  Naples  to  be 
fought  out  between  two  boys,  Ladislas,  the  son  of  Charles, 
who  was  ten  years  old  when  his  father  died,  and  Louis  the 
Second  of  Anjou,  who  was  three  years  the  junior  of  Ladislas. 
Louis  was  represented  by  his  mother,  Marie  de  Bretagne,  who 
was  unable  to  do  anything  for  the  time  to  advance  her  sons 
claim,  which  remained  in  abeyance. 
*  Hefele,  vi.  8oo. 


126     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

The  foregoing  sketch  of  the  state  of  Europe  at  the  time 
of  the  Great  Schism  has  shown  that  the  predominant  place 
throughout  was  taken  by  war.  War,  bloodshed,  and  rapine, 
violence  and  disorder,  were  the  glaring  evils  of  the  time  ;  all 
classes  suffered,  but  the  lowest  suffered  more  terribly  than 
others.  Peace  and  quietude  was  what  they  coveted,  but 
what  they  found  it  difficult  to  obtain.  The  clerical  greeting, 
'  Pax  Vob'iscum,''  whose  full  meaning  we  in  this  country  find 
it  difficult  to  realise,  sounded  a  mockery  to  those  poor  souls, 
whose  crops  were  pillaged,  whose  cattle  were  harried  or 
maimed,  whose  houses  were  burned  over  their  heads.  War 
was  the  occupation  and  the  sport  of  the  knightly  class ;  when 
real  war  was  not  to  be  had,  they  delighted  in  the  mimic  war 
of  the  joust  and  the  tournament.  But  the  knights  formed 
only  one  class  of  the  community. 

Society  in  the  Middle  Ages  was  divided,  roughly  speaking, 
into  four  main  divisions  or  classes.^  There  were  the  knights 
and  their  retainers,  who  dwelt  in  castles  and  strongholds  ; 
there  were  the  merchants  and  tradesmen,  with  their  depen- 
dants, in  the  walled  towns  and  cities ;  there  were  the 
agriculturists,  with  their  labourers,  who  lived  for  the  most 
part  in  wattled  huts,  clustered  around  the  church  in  walled 
villages,  or  gathered  together  close  under  the  protection  of 
their  lord,  spiritual  or  temporal  ;  and  there  were  the  clerks 
(clerici)  or  clergy,  who  dwelt  partly  in  clergy-houses,  monas- 
teries, or  other  buildings,  protected  by  their  sanctity,  and 
partly  also  in  the  larger  cities  and  towns.  To  this  rough 
classification  there  were  many  exceptions,  such  as  the  Jews, 
the  lay  lawyers,  the  sea-going  folk,  the  wayfarers,  and  others; 
but  for  the  population  generally  the  division  holds  good. 
Men  were  born  into  the  first  three  classes  and  took  their 
places  therein  by  right  of  birth.  But  with  the  clerks  it  was 
otherwise.  A  man  was  sometimes  called  a  clerk  because  he 
was  a  scholar ;  but  the  clergy,  properly  speaking,  were  men 
who  had  received  orders,  minor  or  sacred.  The  '  minor 
orders'  were  those  conferred  on  acolytes,  readers,  door- 
keepers, and  exorcists  ;  the  greater  or  '  sacred  orders '  began 
Avith  the  sub-diaconate ;  and  upon  all  those  who  had  received 
'  Cf.  Hist.  Gen,  ii.  2. 


THE  GREAT  SCHISM  127 

them  the  rule  of  celibacy  was,  from  the  time  of  Gregory 
the  Seventh,  enforced.  This  rule  was  not  of  divine  institu- 
tion, it  was  a  rule  of  the  Church,  and  it  was  bitterly  opposed 
at  first ;  but  long  before  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century 
it  had  ceased  to  be  contested.  The  ranks  of  the  clergy  were 
therefore  recruited  by  voluntary  enlistment  from  the  other 
three  classes.  Voluntary  enlistment  implies  deliberate  choice, 
generally  of  the  volunteer,  sometimes  of  his  forebears  ;  and 
a  deliberate  choice  implies  a  certain  amount  of  intelligence. 
For  this  reason,  and  because  of  their  education  and  the 
demands  which  their  duties  cast  upon  them,  the  clergy 
formed  everywhere  the  intelligent  class  in  the  State, 

Among  the  population  generally  the  grossest  ignorance 
abounded  ;  superstition  trenched  on  idolatry  ;  the  time  might 
almost  be  fitly  called  'the  DeviPs  Reign,' ^  Men  of  light 
and  leading  did  things  then  which  would  be  incomprehensible 
now.  Popes  and  condottieri  generals  consulted  the  stars  ; 
magicians  baptized  their  books  in  the  lake  at  the  foot  of 
Mons  Pilatus ;  the  learned  and  reverend  doctors  of  the 
University  of  Paris,  when  at  their  wits'  end,  hesitated  not  to 
consult  certain  wise  women,  foolish  simpletons  who  saw 
visions  and  dreamed  dreams,"  But  although  there  was  much 
that  was  ignoble  and  debasing,  there  was  much  also  of  the 
childlike  and  picturesque,  much  that  found  great  joy  in  the 
mystery  plays  and  in  that  spirit  of  mimicry  and  imitation 
necessary  for  the  education  of  an  unlettered  people,  much 
that  still  lingers  among  the  peasantry  of  Europe  everywhere. 
In  the  early  part  of  the  century  there  had  been  a  considerable 
amount  of  prosperity  even  among  the  peasantry.  In  France 
the  agriculturists  had  been  exceptionally  numerous  and  excep- 
tionally well  off;  they  fared  well  and  their  farms  were  well 
stocked  ;  the  beggars  had  white  bread  given  them,  and  the 
peasantry  spread  clean  napery  for  their  friends  and  ate  their 
fowls  larded,^  In  Germany  also,  when  there  was  no  war  in 
his  vicinity,  the  peasant  was  well-to-do  ;  he  dressed  respec- 
tably and  had  money  in  his  pocket ;  he  became  the  laughing- 
stock  of  his  city  compeers   because  of  his  bearing  and    his 

1  Michelet,  iv,  102,  ^  Ibid.  v.  302. 

'  Simeon  Luce,  Bertrand  du  Guesclin,  62-3. 


128     m  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

independence.  In  England  a  little  later  the  beggars  were 
no  longer  content  with  their  former  rations  ;  they  demanded 
bread  of  clean  wheat  and  beer  of  the  best  and  brownest ; 
the  landless  labourer  despised  '  penny-ale '  or  cabbage  that 
was  a  night  old,  and  asked  for  fresh  meat  and  for  fish  freshly 
fried.  And  together  with  plenty  of  this  rough  comfort  and 
coarse  enjoyment  there  was  among  all  classes,  in  those  days 
when  all  the  world  was  one  religion,  much  good  fellowship, 
much  cheery  intercourse  and  camaraderie.  Men  crossed  and 
greeted  one  another  at  their  daily  avocations,  they  mingled 
in  friendly  rivalry  in  their  sports  and  games,  they  prayed 
together  in  one  church,  they  met  in  the  evening  at  the 
alehouse ;  quite  apart  from  guilds  and  fellowships,  there 
reigned  a  spirit  of  goodwill  and  brotherhood.  Rudolf  of 
Habsburg  would  drink,  mug  in  hand,  to  the  burghers  of 
Thuringia ;  Edward  the  Third  would  dance  with  the  citizens' 
wives  at  Guildhall  ;  Saint  Louis  of  France  would  dispense 
justice  under  an  oak  at  Compiegne. 

In  the  middle  of  the  century  came  the  Black  Death,  the 
most  terrible  scourge  which  has  ever  desolated  humanity  in 
historic  times ;  it  swept  through  nearly  every  part  of  Europe, 
and  carried  off  here  one-third,  there  one-half,  in  some  places 
two-thirds  of  the  inhabitants.  The  fearful  depopulation 
went  far  to  revolutionise  society ;  the  Black  Death  shook  the 
bonds  of  custom  and  introduced  the  reign  of  contract.  The 
shortness  of  labourers  after  the  calamity  gave  to  every 
workman,  agricultural  or  other,  a  market  value ;  and  he  soon 
learned  no  longer  to  be  content  with  the  old  customary 
valuation  placed  on  his  services.  There  was  everywhere  a 
demand  for  labour,  and  he  could  leave  his  old  home  and 
get  work  at  better  wages  elsewhere.  In  England  wages 
doubled ;  they  were  everywhere  in  excess  of  the  statute  rate, 
but  employers  were  willing  to  risk  the  liability  and  to  go  on 
paying :  the  labourers  worked  only  eight  hours  a  day ;  they 
throve  under  their  guilds  and  trades-unions ;  the  peasants 
began  gradually  to  acquire  land.  Very  different  was  the 
state  of  things  in  France.  That  country  had  sunk  from 
the  height  of  prosperity  to  the  depth  of  misery.  The 
Hundred  Years'  War  had  begun,  and  in  the  intervals  of  the 


THE  GREAT  SCHISM  129 

war  the  country  suffered  from  the  ravages  of  the  Free  Com- 
panies. The  English  and  their  allies  among  the  Bretons 
and  the  Navarrese  had  committed  frightful  atrocities,  but 
Frenchman  and  foreigner  alike,  clerk  and  layman,  combined 
to  pillage  the  unhappy  land  of  France.  The  grandes 
compagnies  were  composed  of  miscreants  of  all  nations, 
bands  with  the  discipline  of  an  army  and  the  instinct  of 
brigands,  commanded  by  chiefs  like  Robert  Knolles  or  Hugh 
Calverley,  like  Olivier  de  Clisson  or  Eustache  d'Auberchicourt, 
or  even  bv  the  priests  like  Jacques  d'Aigregeuille,  the  cure 
of  Mesvres,  or  the  Archpriest  Arnaud  de  Cervolles.  These 
ruffians  spared  neither  man,  woman,  nor  child  in  their  fury 
and  lust ;  thev  burned  and  despoiled  houses,  sacred  and 
profane  :  indeed,  after  the  castles,  the  buildings  most  capable 
of  fortification  and  defence  were  the  cathedrals,  churches, 
and  abbeys,  and  these  were  therefore  invariably  the  object  of 
attack.  King  Charles  the  Fifth,  by  his  wise  economy  and 
his  policy  of  masterly  inactivity,  had  done  much  to  restore 
the  credit  of  his  country,  but  he  could  not  recompense  his 
peasantry  for  the  sufferings  they  had  endured.  After  the  in- 
surrection of  the  Jacques  had  been  quelled,  the  country  abode 
in  comparative  peace.  In  Germany  also  the  Emperor  Charles 
the  Fourth  did  his  best  to  keep  the  peace  among  the  number- 
less heterogeneous  elements  of  which  the  Empire  was  composed, 
and  for  the  most  part  he  succeeded.  But  everywhere  through 
Western  Europe  toward  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century  a 
spirit  of  popular  discontent  had  been  rising  among  the 
people,  and  it  graduallv  culminated  in  insurrections  and 
outbreaks.  In  1378  the  Ciompi  or  'wooden  shoes,'  the 
proletariat  of  Florence,  rose  in  a  half-revolution,  half-strike, 
to  obtain  reduction  of  taxes  and  better  terms  of  employment : 
they  burned  the  palaces  of  the  nobles  and  introduced  a 
reign  of  terror,  during  which  the  city  was  given  over  to 
outrage  and  pillage.  In  Flanders  the  '  white  bonnets,'  the 
democratic  party,  rallied  in  Ghent  around  the  bourgeois 
Philip  van  Artevelde ;  they  marched  victoriously  against 
Bruges,  but  were  mown  down  in  their  thousands  by  the 
French  at  Roosebeke  (1382).  In  England  the  peasants 
throughout    the   eastern    counties,  from    Norfolk    round    to 

I 


130     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

Sussex,  revolted,  thousands  of  them  marched  on  London, 
and  demanded  from  their  King  the  abolition  of  serfdom 
(1381).  At  Rouen  the  coppersmiths  and  others  rose;  they 
elected  as  their  king  a  rich  draper,  a  big  man  but  poor  of 
spirit ;  they  opened  the  gaols,  pillaged  the  houses  of  former 
mayors,  tore  up  charters  (1382).  In  the  same  year  the 
Parisians  rose  against  the  tax-gatherers  and  the  Jews  ;  they 
seized  twelve  thousand  leaden  mallets  from  the  Hotel  de 
Ville,  and  for  three  days  the  Maillotins  were  masters  of  the 
city.  In  Auvergne  the  Tuchins,  or  dog-killers,  appeared  ; 
they  were  recruited  from  the  poorest  of  the  poor,  and 
nothing  was  safe  from  them.  In  Languedoc  the  peasants 
and  the  men  of  the  faubourgs,  reduced  to  the  utmost 
misery  by  the  war  and  taxation,  rose  in  fury  against  the 
nobles  and  the  priests,  killing  all  who  had  not  hard  and 
horny  hands  like  their  own  (1382).  Something  resembling 
an  international  feeling  of  sympathy  among  the  working 
classes  had  sprung  up  ;  for  the  first  time,  says  Henri  Martin, 
the  populace  in  the  different  nations  of  the  West  experienced 
the  instinct  of  the  identity  of  their  cause,  and  an  electric 
movement  of  sympathy  ran  from  the  banks  of  the  Seine  and 
the  Scheldt  to  those  of  the  Thames.  In  1386  the  Swiss 
peasants  defeated  Leopold  of  Habsburg  in  the  disastrous 
battle  of  Sempach ;  and  next  year  the  war,  simmering 
since  1379,  broke  out  between  the  Swabian  cities  and 
the  Dukes  of  Bavaria,  and  between  the  towns  on  the  Rhine 
and  the  Count  Palatine.  Most  sad  were  the  results : 
for  miles  round  the  cities  and  fortresses  the  villages  were 
utterly  destroyed,  and  not  a  church  nor  a  house  remained 
standing.  There  was  at  this  time,  as  Michelet  has  said,  the 
profoundest  trouble  throughout  Christendom  ;  it  seemed  as  if 
universal  war  were  commencing  between  the  low  and  the  great. 
It  was  in  the  middle  of  all  this  horror  and  misery  that 
the  Great  Schism  had  begun.  Its  existence  was  universally 
admitted  and  universally  deplored.  It  was  everywhere  felt 
to  be  necessary  in  the  interest  of  Christendom  to  put  an 
end  to  the  disunion  as  speedily  as  possible.  '  Divine 
Providence,'  Frederic  Barbarossa  had  once  said,  '  has  specially 
^  Martin,  v.  339. 


THE  GREAT  SCHISM  131 

appointed  the  Roman  Empire  to  prevent  the  continuance  of 
schism  in  the  Church/  ^  The  Emperor,  when  he  uttered  this 
axiom,  was  undoubtedly  the  most  powerful  monarch  in 
Europe.  But  when  Charles  the  Fourth  died  there  was  no 
Emperor ;  the  King  of  the  Romans  was  a  mere  boy  of 
sixteen.  Charles  had  recognised  Urban  ;  he  had  commended 
his  cause  to  his  son  ;  and  all  Europe  expected,  and  the  Pope 
at  Rome  most  anxiously  hoped,  that  Wenzel  would  forthwith 
proceed  to  Rome  to  be  crowned  Emperor,  and  that  the 
Emperor  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire  would  thus  proclaim  to 
all  Christendom  that  Urban  the  Sixth  was  the  rightful  and 
legitimate  Pope  and  that  Clement  was  a  usurper.  But  there 
were  obstacles  in  the  way.  In  1381  indeed,  Wenzel  and 
King  Louis  of  Hungary  sent  an  embassy  to  Paris  to  endeavour 
to  convert  the  French  court  to  the  Roman  obedience ;  but 
the  result  was  a  foregone  conclusion,  as  was  that  of  the 
counter-embassy  sent  two  years  later  from  Paris  to  Prague. 
The  journey  to  Rome  was  imperative  in  the  interest  of 
Urban.  Difficulties  in  the  Empire,  negotiations  with 
Hungary  and  Austria,  the  strife  over  the  archbishopric  of 
Mainz  and  over  the  Swabian  League,  occupied  Wenzel  in 
the  earlier  years  of  his  reign  ;  and  when  in  1382  he 
announced  his  intention  of  making  the  journey  to  Rome, 
the  death  of  Louis  of  Hungary  and  the  consequent  advance- 
ment of  the  claims  of  his  half-brother  Sigismund  to  the 
crowns  of  Hungary  and  Poland  delayed  the  project  for  some 
years  further.  At  this  time  in  his  reign  Wenzel  practically  gave 
up  his  chance  of  wearing  the  golden  crown  in  order  to  further 
the  interests  of  Sigismund,  and  bitterly  he  was  repaid  for  his 
sacrifice.  The  coronation  of  Wenzel  and  his  acknowledg- 
ment of  Urban  were  not  to  be.  An  Emperor  was  not  thus 
to  jiut  an  end  to  the  Schism.  Some  other  means  must  be 
sought. 

From  the  very  beginning  the  })lan  of  a  general  council 
had  been  broached.  Before  the  election  of  Clement,  the 
Italian  cardinals,  with  the  assent  of  Urban,  had  proposed 
that  the  question  of  the  validity  of  his  election  should  be 
referred  to  a  council  ; '  two  of  them  repeated  the  suggestion 
•  Gresebrecht,  v.  236,  422.  2  Hefele,  vi.  789 ;  Schwab,  105. 


132     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

afterward  at  Nice.^  The  Florentines,  when  the  Duke  of 
Anjou  tried  to  win  them  to  Clement,  replied  that  they 
had  already  recognised  Urban  as  their  Pope,  and  that  they 
must  stand  bv  their  decision  until  a  genei'al  council  decided 
that  they  were  wrong."  King  John  of  Castile,  in  his  letter 
of  the  20th  September  1379,  advised  Charles  the  Fifth  of 
France  to  refer  the  matter  to  a  general  council,  this  being 
the  plan,  he  said,  which  all  Christendom  approved.  The 
most  eloquent  and  persuasive  advocate  at  this  time  of  a 
general  council  was  undoubtedly  Henry  of  Langenstein,  the 
vice-chancellor  of  the  University  of  Paris,  who  (1381)  held 
that  God  had  in  His  mercy  permitted  the  Schism  in  order 
to  bring  about  the  much  needed  reform  in  the  Church,  for 
which  a  general  council  was  necessary.^  He  was  the  first  to 
urge  that  the  divine  right  of  the  Pope  must  itself  be  subor- 
dinate to  the  welfare  of  the  Church ;  his  teaching  fashioned 
the  thoughts  of  Jean  Gerson,  who  when  Pierre  d'Ailly  was 
promoted  to  a  bishopric,  succeeded  to  the  chancellorship  of 
the  University  in  1390.  King  Charles  the  Fifth  was  himself 
in  correspondence  with  the  warmest  adherents  of  the  scheme 
of  a  council ;  but  despite  the  embassy  of  the  Duke  of  Luxem- 
burg, despite  the  arguments  of  Henry  of  Langenstein  and 
Conrad  of  Gelnhausen,  the  King  of  France  died  with  the 
assertion  on  his  lips  that  he  still  believed  Clement  the 
Seventh  to  be  the  true  shepherd  of  the  Church,  although 
he  so  far  wavered  as  to  admit  that  he  would  have  obeyed 
the  finding  of  a  general  council  had  it  gone  against  him. 

But  the  chief  argument  against  a  council  was  that  neither 
Urban  nor  Clement  nor  the  cardinals  would  hear  of  it. 
There  were  indeed  almost  insuperable  difficulties  in  the  way 
of  its  adoption  at  that  time.  There  was  the  difficulty  as  to 
the  place  of  convocation  amid  the  wars  and  jarring  interests 
of  Europe.  There  was  the  difficulty  as  to  the  mode  of 
convocation  :  it  was  the  duty  of  the  Emperor  of  the  Holy 
Roman  Empire  to  convoke  a  council,  but  Wenzel  had 
not  yet  received  the  golden  crown  ;  and  if  a  council  could 
not  meet  without  the  consent  of  the  Pope,  then  both  Popes 
and  cardinals  refused  to  act.    There  was  the  further  difficulty 

1  Lindner  (^F.),  i.  III.  '■'  Valois,  i.  155.  ^  Schwab,  151. 


THE  GREAT  SCHISM  133 

of  enforcinor  the  decrees  of  the  council  wlien  they  had  been 
made.  The  project  was,  at  the  commencement  of  the  Great 
Schism,  repeatedly  made ;  it  was  as  often,  because  of  the 
manifest  difficulty  and  dilatoriness  attending  its  execution, 
deliberately  discarded.  The  plan  was  especially  favoured  by 
the  Universities  of  Paris,  Oxford,  and  Prague  ;  ^  and  the  year 
after  the  death  of  King  Charles  the  Fifth,  the  University  of 
Paris  returned  to  their  scheme.  Pierre  d'Ailly  received  a 
respectful  hearing,  but  when  Jean  Rousse,  a  Doctor  of  Abbe- 
ville, was  commissioned  by  the  University  to  lay  the  matter 
formally  before  the  royal  council,  the  Duke  of  Anjou,  who  had 
welcomed  the  election  of  Clement  far  more  heartily  than  his 
brother,  and  who  looked  to  the  new  Pope  to  finance  him  in 
his  design  on  the  crown  of  Naples,  not  only  did  not  allow  the 
orator  to  speak,  but  sent  armed  men  by  night  to  seize  him  in 
his  bed,  and  consigned  the  Doctor  to  the  blackest  cachot  of 
the  Chatelet.2  For  several  years  the  University  was  reduced 
to  ignominious  silence.  The  *  way  of  fact,'  the  expulsion  of 
the  opponent  by  brute  force,  was  at  this  time  the  only  solution 
of  the  difficulty  which  found  favour  at  any  court  of  Europe. 

On  Christian  Europe  the  Schism  produced  its  natural  result. 
Scholars  began  to  doubt  and  inquire  ;  divisions  of  opinion  and 
heresy  speedily  appeared.  The  spirit  of  scepticism  as  to  the 
Pope's  authority  and  infallibility  had  indeed  appeared  in 
Germany  in  the  days  of  Louis  of  Bavaria,  when  Pope  John 
the  Twenty-second,  in  his  quarrel  with  the  King,  had  laid  the 
land  under  interdict  and  had  introduced  strife  into  many 
bishoprics,  when  he  had  fallen  foul  of  the  Franciscans  because 
of  their  doctrine  of  the  poverty  of  Christ  and  had  himself 
come  under  suspicion  because  of  his  theory  of  the  Beatific 
Vision,  when  the  sect  of  the  Free  Thinkers  gained  ground  and 
the  Mystics  taught  personal  communion  with  God — all  these 
things  turned  men's  eyes  toward  the  shortcomings  of  the 
Church  and  opened  their  minds  to  inquiry  and  scepticism. 
The  critical  spirit  dated  from  the  days  of  the  Babylonish 
Captivity  at  Avignon.  Michael  of  Cesena  had  taught  that 
the  Pope  may  err,  but  that  a  Council  of  the  Universal  Church 
cannot  err.  William  of  Ockham  believed  that  the  Pope  may 
^  Palacky,  iii.  9.  2  Religietix,  i.  86. 


134     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

err,  that  a  general  council  may  also  fall  into  error,  and  that 
infallibility  is  to  be  found  only  in  the  Scriptures  and  the 
beliefs  of  the  Universal  Church.  Marsiglio  of  Padua  had 
published  the  Defensor  Pads,  a  work  which  in  many  points 
might  be  accepted  almost  without  reserve  by  a  Protestant  to- 
day :  its  teaching  was,  as  has  been  already  shown,  that  the 
domains  of  the  spiritual  and  civil  powers  were  separate,  that 
the  former  had  no  coercive  jurisdiction,  that  the  Catholic 
Faith  rests  on  Holy  Scripture  alone,  that  when  doubts  arise  as 
to  the  meaning  of  the  sacred  Word,  these  can  only  be  settled 
by  a  general  council  of  the  faithful,  on  which  clergy  and  laity 
alike  have  seats.  The  Schism  profoundly  shocked  John 
Wyclif ;  he  saw  each  rival  Pope  fulminating  excommunications 
against  the  other ;  and  he  speedily  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  Papacy  itself  was  the  great  evil,  that  it  was  the 
poison  of  the  Church.  Like  the  Spiritual  successors  of  Francis 
of  Assisi,  he  believed  in  the  absolute  poverty  of  the  clergy ; 
he  believed  also  in  '  dominion  founded  on  grace.'  These  were 
doctrines  which,  carried  to  their  logical  conclusions,  might 
have  important  political  bearings ;  his  opposition  to  the 
Church  was  most  clearly  evinced  by  his  theory  as  to  transub- 
stantiation ;  he  denied  the  orthodox  doctrine,  he  refused  to 
believe  that  a  priest  could  by  a  daily  miracle  transform  the 
wafer  and  wine  into  flesh  and  blood.  Wyclif  thus  became 
a  heretic,  and  a  dangerous  heretic.  But  heresy,  if  not  en- 
gendered, had  been  fostered  and  increased  by  the  Schism.  As 
a  German  historian  has  put  it,  the  Captivity  at  Avignon, 
followed  by  the  Schism,  brought  on  the  Reformation.^ 
Furthermore,  it  was  the  Schism  which  discredited  the  papal 
dignity  and  tended  to  destroy  all  reverence  for  the  supreme 
head  of  the  Church.  '  In  England  it  strengthened  immensely 
the  reforming  movement,  and  made  entire  distrust,  defiance 
even,  of  a  Pope  seem  not  merely  a  patriotic  but  a  religious 
duty.'  Christ's  vineyard  in  England  had  been  beautiful  and 
fruitful,  sang  an  old  Latin  poet,  but  now  the  Lord's  vineyard 
was  laid  waste  ;  '  O  now,  plague-stricken  land,  that  didst  team 
with  all  sound  learning  free  from  the  taint  of  heresy,  stranger 
to  all  error,  exempt  from  all  deception  :  now  thou  rankest  as 

^  Lindner  {JV.),  ii.  307. 


THE  GREAT  SCHISM  135 

the  chief  in  all  schism,  discord,  madness.'  ^  Wyclif  had  sown 
the  seed ;  the  fruit  soon  appeared.  Oxford,  London,  Leicester, 
and  Bristol  became  centres  of  Wyclifite  influence.  Nicholas 
of  Hereford,  Philip  Repyngdon,  and  John  Aston  were  sum- 
moned before  the  archbishop  to  answer  for  their  advocacy  of 
the  new  doctrines.  A  few  years  later  several  fellows  were 
expelled  from  Queen's  College,  Oxford,  because  of  their 
sympathy  with  the  teaching  of  the  reformer.  Even  at  court 
the  gentle  Queen  Anne,  elder  sister  of  Sigismund,  was  not 
unfriendly  to  the  new  teaching ;  she  encouraged  the  use  of  the 
open  Bible.  The  Bohemian  scholars  who  followed  her  to  the 
Encrlish  Court  took,  back  with  them  afterwards  to  their  native 
land  the  books  and  teaching  of  John  Wyclif. 

Far  more  important  to  the  Popes  than  any  such  downright 
heresy,  which  could  be  met  with  and  fought  outright,  was  the 
anti-papal,  almost  latitudinarian,  spirit  which  had  taken  pos- 
session of  that  stronghold  of  orthodoxy,  the  University  of 
Paris.  The  sight  of  two  Popes  in  Christendom  raised  the 
question  whether  the  Pope  was  after  all  the  real  head  of  the 
Church,  whether  the  real  head  was  not  Christ ;  if  the  Pope 
was  merely  His  earthly  representative,  might  there  not  be  two 
or  three,  or  ten  or  twelve  Popes,  an  independent  Pope  for 
every  different  country,^  with  its  own  independent  Church  ? 
Such  speculations  indulged  in  by  theologians  were  fatal  to  an 
undivided  papal  supremacy,  but  luckily  they  found  no  response 
in  the  civil  powers.  In  the  University  of  Paris  itself,  however, 
they  were  rife,  and  she  was  the  acknowledged  champion  of  the 
faith,  to  whose  dictates  kings,  and  even  Popes,  were  wont  to 
defer.  For  the  University  of  Paris  was  the  first  seminary  of 
theology  in  Europe,  she  was  a  cosmopolitan  institution,  with 
scholars  from  all  countries,  speaking  the  cosmopolitan  tongue, 
Latin ;  and  at  this  time  she,  the  venerated  mother  of  Saint 
Thomas  Aquinas  and  of  William  of  Ockham,  had  in  her  midst 
a  crowd  of  eminent  theologians.  There  was  Henry  of  Hesse 
of  Langenstein,  the  great  advocate  of  the  scheme  for  a  general 
council,  who  left  Paris  in  1382  ;  there  was  Matthias  of  Janow, 
who  was  later  Prebendary  of  Prague  ;  there  was  Pierre  Plaoul, 
who  was  sent  on  an  embassy  to  Germany ;  there  was  the  cele- 
1  Capes,  134,  153.  ^  Schwab,  133. 


136     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

brated  Pierre  d'Ailly,  who  regarded  the  person  of  neither 
Pope,  who  was  also  an  advocate  for  a  general  council,  but  who, 
in  his  advocacy  thereof,  bided  his  time,  waiting  until  1407  for 
a  favourable  opportunity  ;  there  were  the  three  noted  disciples 
of  Pierre  d'Ailly,  Gilles  des  Champs,  the  sovereign  Doctor  of 
Theology,  Jean  Charlier  de  Gerson,  the  Christlike  teacher,  and 
Nicholas  de  Clamanges,  the  Cicero  of  his  time.^  These  were 
men  who  would  exert  a  profound  influence  on  the  progress 
of  negotiations  during  the  Schism ;  and  it  is  important,  there- 
fore, to  grasp  the  nature  of  their  thoughts  and  predilections. 
Perhaps  the  most  noteworthy  phase  was  the  revolt  in  the 
bosom  of  the  University  itself  of  the  despised  and  neglected 
theologians  against  the  canon  and  the  civil  law.  This  revolt 
was  necessarily  anti-papal,  for  the  Popes  were  almost  invariably 
lawyers,  doctors  of  the  canon  or  of  both  civil  and  canon  law, 
with  a  lawyer's  liking  for  the  clear-cut  intelligible  wording 
of  the  decretals,  with  a  lawyer's  dislike  for  the  subtle  meta- 
physical distinctions  of  the  mediaeval  scholastic  theology. 
Moreover,  Clement  the  Seventh,  when  he  became  Pope  at 
Avignon,  took  no  thought  for  the  Church  but  to  suck  the 
marrow  from  her  bones,  and  troubled  not  at  all  about  the 
professors  at  Paris.  It  is  small  wonder,  then,  that  an  anti- 
papal  spirit  grew  among  them.  Its  position  as  the  champion 
of  orthodoxy  gave  the  University  prominence,  and  lent  to  the 
teaching  of  its  professors  an  importance  and  a  weight  which 
did  not  attach  to  those  of  Wyclif  or  of  Hus.  Hence  arose 
during  the  continuance  of  the  Schism  the  preponderating 
influence  of  men  such  as  D'Ailly  and  Gerson,  whose  views  it  is 
important  to  understand.  The  theology  of  D'Ailly  may  serve 
as  an  example. 

Born  in  1350,  the  son  of  humble  but  honest  parents,  Colard 
and  Petronilla,  a  patriotic  Frenchman  all  his  life  through, 
Pieire  d'Ailly  went  to  the  College  of  Navarre  at  the  University 
of  Paris ;  when  he  was  twenty-two  years  of  age,  he  was  chosen 
proctor  for  the  French  Nation  at  the  University,  and  took  his 
degree  as  Doctor  in  1380.  It  was  then  that  he  published  his 
theological  tractate  on  the  Church.  He  was  a  middle  man, 
standing  cautiously  between  the  two  parties ;  he  had  imbibed 
'  Tschackert,  7,  66. 


THE  GREAT  SCHISM  137 

the  teaching  of  Pierre  Dubois  and  John  of  Paris,  of  Marsiglio 
of  Padua  and  VV^illiam  of  Ockham  ;  but  he  saw  that  the 
Church  had  not  been  utterly  overthrown  by  Philip  the 
Fair,  and  his  liberalism  was  moderated.  Above  all,  he 
was  a  Frenchman  and  a  Galilean,  a  Galilean  before  the 
time  of  Bossuet,  a  Galilean  before  the  Pragmatic  Sanction  of 
Bourges.  He  was  too  conservative  to  belong  to  the  party 
directly  opposed  to  the  Church,  and  too  close  a  follower  of  the 
new  philosophy  to  belong  to  the  orthodox.  In  philosophy  he 
was  a  nominalist,  and  nominalism  had  the  advantage  of  draw- 
ing a  sharp  line  between  matters  of  the  faith  and  of  the 
intellect,  of  confining  the  reason  to  the  things  of  which  con- 
sciousness was  taken,  mediately  or  immediately,  through  the 
senses  and  the  intellect,  and  of  relegating  the  higher  truths  of 
religion  to  a  supernatural  mysticism.  But  through  it  all 
D'Ailly  was  essentially  anti-papal.  The  Church,  in  his  view,  <• 
was  built  on  Faith,  Hope,  and  Charity.  Faith,  inspired  faith, 
infiisa  Jides,  was  the  evidence  of  things  not  seen,  the  intel- 
lectual assent  to  the  catholic  verities ;  it  provided  the  set 
stones  of  the  building,  of  which  Hope  raised  the  unsurmount- 
able  walls,  and  to  which  the  Love  of  God  and  one's  neighbour 
formed  the  all-embracing  roof:  the  truly  spiritual  were  the 
inner  walls,  the  preachers  and  teachers  were  the  windows  of 
the  building,  the  portals  were  the  truth  of  God's  word,  and 
the  pillars  were  the  men  of  action,  the  shepherds  and  leaders. 
Thus  was  Holy  Church  an  organised  whole,  the  fellowship  of 
Christians  based  on  Holy  Writ,  perfect  but  not  yet  perfected, 
for  believers  are  still  united  with  Christ  in  building  up  the 
House  of  God,  There  is  no  mention  of  the  Pope  here ;  it  is 
the  Church  which  is  all-important ;  she  is  the  Holy  Mother 
who  reconciles  men  with  God ;  her  priests  administer  the 
sacraments  which  build  up  inspired  faith  ;  and  when  the  sinner 
through  fear  dare  not  betake  himself  directly  to  Christ,  he  turns 
trustfully  to  the  arms  of  the  merciful  mediator,  the  Church. 
D'Ailly  set  a  high  value  on  the  written  word  of  the  Bible,  he 
was  energetic  in  favour  of  a  correct  translation  of  the  original ; 
but  he  did  not  accept  the  written  word  as  his  criterion,  he 
regarded  it  as  merely  a  sign  or  symbol  of  the  true  law,  and  as 
a  nominalist  he  looked  through  the  word  to  find  the  under- 


138     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

lying  idea  ;  he  found  his  touchstone  in  inspired  faith,  backed 
by  conclusive  argument.  '  The  law  of  Christ,"*  he  says,  '  may 
be  most  properly  defined  as  inspired  faith,  or  its  action, 
by  which  rational  man  assents  to  the  truths  of  Christian 
doctrine';  ^  the  law  may  indeed  be  enunciated  in  words,  but  it 
may  also  be  known  inwardly  as  the  knowledge  of  good  and 
evil.  Holy  Church  he  takes  to  be  the  community  of  believers  ; 
its  foundations  are  the  words  and  promises  of  Christ,  who  is 
the  true  Head  of  the  Church.  The  Church  is  not  founded  on 
timid,  frightened  Peter,  but  on  Christ ;  '  for  other  foundation 
can  no  man  lay  than  that  is  laid,  which  is  Christ  Jesus.' 
There  are  pillars  of  the  Church  of  the  second  order,  among 
which  is  Peter,  the  rock  on  which  Christ  built  His  Church,  so 
that  the  gates  of  Hell  shall  not  prevail  against  it.  But  Peter 
obtained  thereby  no  pre-eminence,  seeing  that  all  believers 
rest  equally  on  Chrisfs  words ;  nor  was  the  promise  that  his 
faith  should  not  fail  made  to  him  personally,  but  to  the 
Church  committed  to  him.  So,  too,  Chrisfs  promise  to  His 
disciples  to  be  with  them  to  the  end  of  the  world  is  a  promise 
made  to  the  Church  of  faith  for  believers.  D'Ailly  did  not 
believe  in  Saint  Thomas  Aquinas's  doctrine  of  the  infallibility 
of  the  Pope,  any  more  than  did  Saint  Bernard  of  Clairvaux  or 
the  Electors  at  Reuse,  or  John  the  Twenty-second  when  he 
claimed  to  correct  the  errors  of  his  predecessors.  He  pointed 
out  how  the  Decretal  of  Gratian  had  been  corrected  by 
Gregory  the  Ninth  on  the  ground  that  some  of  the  contents 
were  superfluous  and  others  contradictory,  and  how  Boniface 
had  made  further  additions,  bolstering  up  some  parts  and 
cutting  down  others ;  he  urged  that  the  Canon  Law  was  not 
necessary  to  the  Church's  existence,  for  it  had  been  said  long 
before  decretals  were  known  that  Christ  was  the  end  of  the 
law  for  righteousness  to  every  one  that  believeth.  In  his  view 
as  to  a  general  council  D'Ailly  resembled  Wilham  of  Ockham  ; 
he  avoided  the  recognition  of  its  infallibility  even  in  matters 
of  faith ;  he  thought  it  possible  that  such  a  council  might  err, 
and  that  the  knowledge  of  the  truth  might  be  restricted  to  a 
few  poor  simple  souls,  as  at  the  time  of  the  Crucifixion  it  had 
been  restricted  to  the  Virgin  Mary.      In  practice,  however, 

'  Tschackert,  22. 


THE  GREAT  SCHISM  139 

D'Ailly  was  not  troubled  by  these  subtle  distinctions ;  he  was 
ready  to  refer  the  termination  of  the  Schism  to  a  select  com- 
mittee chosen  from  both  obediences — an  impracticable  scheme 
which  he  soon  abandoned.  He  was  clear  above  all  things  on 
the  two  points  that  neither  the  Church  at  Rome  nor  the  Pope 
was  essential  to  salvation.  Frenchmen  who  had  embraced  the 
cause  of  Clement  were  unanimous  on  the  former  point ;  and  as 
to  the  latter,  D'Ailly,  while  admitting  that  a  human  body 
without  a  head  is  dead,  contended  that  the  Church  was  the 
mystical  body  of  Christ,  and  that  even  without  an  earthly 
head  She  would  remain  alive  through  faith  and  grace,  seeing 
that  She  had  a  high  priest  in  heaven,  even  Christ,  who  was 
head  over  all  things  to  the  Church.  There  is  much  that  is 
mystical  in  the  reasoning,  there  is  much  that  is  apparently 
capricious  in  the  way  in  which  a  text  is  taken  now  literally 
and  now  anagogically,  but  the  trend  of  the  theology  of  D'Ailly 
and  also  of  Jean  Gerson  was  distinctly  anti-papal. 


140     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 


CHAPTER     IV 

BALDASSARE    COSSA 

'  All  men,"'  says  the  old  Italian  novelist  Bandello,^  '  whose 
experience  by  travaile  is  a  wytnes  of  the  singularities  of  Italye 
and  Spaine,  are  of  opinion  that  Naples  is  one  of  the  moste 
riche,  pleasante,  and  populous  cities  in  Europe,"  and  he 
mentions  the  warlike  garrison  of  gentlemen  there ;  he  mentions 
also  the  islands  hard  by  :  'he  that  is  desierous  to  be  pertaker 
of  the  merveiles  of  nature,  hidden  in  th'intralles  of  the  earthe, 
let  him  take  a  boate  and  visit  the  ylandes.'  It  was  in  one  of 
these  islands  that  dwelt  the  family  from  which  sprang  the 
future  Pope  John  the  Twenty- third .  In  civilisation  and  en- 
lightenment, as  already  pointed  out,  Italy  was  far  ahead  of 
the  other  nations  of  Europe ;  noble  and  burgher  dwelt  peace- 
fully together  within  the  city  walls ;  nor  was  the  Italian 
Church  degraded  by  being  overstocked  with  younger  sons  of 
lofty  families.  But  the  Neapolitan  nobility  were  less  civilised 
and  enlightened  than  those  in  other  parts  of  Italy ;  they  were 
noted  for  their  vanity  and  for  their  isolation  from  the  common 
herd.  The  nobles  of  Venice  and  Genoa  were  merchants  and 
sailors ;  part  of  the  old  nobility  of  Florence  had  devoted 
themselves  to  trade ;  those  of  Rome,  though  they  despised 
trade,  farmed  their  own  lands ;  but  the  nobility  of  Naples 
neither  busied  themselves  with  trade  or  commerce  nor  with 
the  care  of  their  own  estates.^  More  backward  and  less 
cultured  than  their  fellows,  they  were  naturally  marked  alike 
by  more  of  the  antique  faults  and  by  more  of  the  antique 
virtues  of  their  class. 

Among  the  Neapolitan  nobles  who  had  remained  consistently 
^  Fenton's  Bandello  (Tudor  Translations),  i.  250.  ^  Burckhardt,  362. 


BALDASSARE  COSSA  141 

faithful  to  their  old  queen  Joanna  and  to  her  proteges  of  the 
second  House  of  Anjou  was  Giovanni  Cossa,  the  Signor  of 
Procida,  the  head  of  a  noble  but  impoverished  family.  The 
name  was  also  spelt  Coscia  or  Coxa,  the  word  being  the  Italian 
form  of  the  French  cuisxe ;  the  family  banner  bore  the  canting 
arms,  '  a  field  divided  per  fess,  in  the  upper  half  a  gold  thigh 
on  a  red  field,  on  the  lower  half  three  green  bands  on  a  silver 
field,  the  whole  enclosed  in  an  indented  circle  of  gold/  There 
were  some  who  pretended  that  the  family  had  been  founded  by 
the  old  Roman  Cornelius  Cossus,  of  the  days  of  the  war 
against  Veii ;  they  said  that  the  family  was  one  of  those 
which  Totila,  after  taking  Rome  in  547,  had  dragged  in  his 
train  and  had  settled  in  Campania :  but  this  is  mere  mediaeval 
legend.  The  family  came  from  the  island  of  Ischia ;  in  the 
days  of  King  Charles  the  Lame  (1285-1309)  Stephano  Cossa 
was  high  in  favour  with  that  monarch,  and  at  his  death  he  left 
to  the  king's  care  his  three  sons  Marino,  Giovanni,  and  Pietro. 
When  King  Charles  died  he  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Rupert, 
with  whom  Marino,  the  father  of  Giovanni  Cossa,  was  as  great 
a  favourite  as  his  father  had  been  with  King  Charles.  Marino 
became  Chamberlain  and  Justiciar,  and  in  1340  he  was  wealthy 
enough  to  purchase  from  its  owner  Adinolfo  the  island  of 
Procida,  which  lies  between  Ischia  and  the  mainland.  The 
Cossa  family  were  all  of  them  men  of  war ;  ^  they  held  four 
baronies  in  the  kingdom  of  Naples,  besides  the  dukedom  of 
Santa  Gata,  and  one  of  the  minor  secretaryships  ;  ^  they  were 
still  of  importance  when  Baldassare  Cossa,  one  of  several 
brothers,  was  born.^     Gaspar,  the  future  admiral,  was  a  brother 

^  Ammirato,  iv.  345. 

^  Scipio  Mazella  Napolitano,  Descritiione  del  Regno  di  Napoli,  538. 

'  Christophe,  in  his  Histoire  de  la  Papauti  (iii.  343),  says  : — '  Baltazar  Cossa 
ou  Coscia,  la  Cuisse,  avail  re^u  le  jour  a  Naples  du  Comte  Jean  de  Troye, 
seigneur  de  Procide. '  He  gives  as  his  authority  Novaez.  Giuseppe  de  Novaez, 
in  his  Elementi  della  Storia  del  Pontifici  (Siena,  1803),  says  : — '  Giovanni 
XXIII.,  chiamato  prima  Baldassare  Coscia  o  Cossa,  nacque  in  Napoli.  da 
Giovanni  Conte  di  Troja  e  Signore  di  Procida,  come  dice  il  Marchese  nel 
suo  Libro  de  Protonotarii  Partecipanti,  o  come  altri  vogliono  di  famiglia 
mediocre.'  He  refers  to  Marchese  Buonaccorsi  (Giorgio  Viviano)  as  his 
authority.  Marchese,  in  his  Antichila  ed  Excellenze  del  Protonotariato  Ap- 
postolico  (In  Faenza  pel  Benedetti  Impress.  Vescovia,  MDCCL. ),  at  p.  114, 
says :—' Baldassare  Cossa  Napolitano,  figlio  di  Giovanni  Conte  di  Troja  e 
Signore  di  Procida  ' ;  he  then  gives  the  details  as  to  the  family  which  I  have 


142     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

of  the  future  Pope.  Cossa  was  born  about,  or  possibly  a  year 
or  two  before,  1368,i  the  year  in  which  was  born  the  man  who 
was  to  be  his  ruin,  Sigismund  of  Hungary,  and  the  year  before 
the  Bohemian  patriot  and  reformer,  John  Hus. 

Of  the  early  life  of  Baldassare  Cossa  two  accounts  are  given. 
According  to  that  generally  current,  in  his  early  youth  he, 
like  Martuccio  in  the  story,  took  to  the  sea  and  became  a 
corsair  or  pirate.  His  family  lived  on  an  island,  and  the  pro- 
fession was  gentlemanly  enough  in  those  days.  The  wreckage 
thrown  up  by  tlie  sea  was  known  as  the  strand-goods,  and  the 
pious  peasantry  who  dwelt  near  the  coast  prayed  the  Lord 
without  ceasing  to  increase  the  strand  gut  in  their  quarters. 
The  Hanseatic  League  had  been  formed  two  centuries  earlier  to 
protect  fishing  smacks  and  merchant  vessels  from  the  lordly 
pirates  of  the  North  Sea  and  the  Baltic.  Piracy  prevailed 
from  the  thirteenth  century  onwards  on  both  sides  of  our  own 
narrow  seas,  and  all  along  the  coast  from  Germany  round  to 
Aquitaine.  The  grand  seigneurs  of  Normandy  and  Brittany 
were  wont  to  man  boats  at  their  own  expense  and  to  start 
across  the  Channel  in  hope  of  booty,-  at  times  pushing  as  far 
as  Wales  to  give  a  helping  hand  to  the  rebels  there.  Nor 
were  we,  on  our  side  of  the  Channel,  averse  from  the  same 
oame.  Every  one  remembers  the  Man  from  Dartmouth,  the 
Shipman  among  the  immortal  Canterbury  Pilgrims,  who 

'  If  that  he  faught  and  hadde  the  hyer  hond, 
By  water  he  sente  hem  hoom  to  every  lond/ 

thus  getting  rid  of  his  victims  by  making  them  walk  the  plank. 
The  Scots  raided  the  English  vessels,  the  English  raided  those 
of  the  Scots  and  French.  Henry  Pay  of  Poole,  Philip  Tailor 
and  John  Wells  of  Bristol,  and  a  score  of  other  English  gentle- 
men, committed  acts  of  piracy  time  after  time ;  they  were  the 
worthy  forerunners  of  Drake,  Frobisher,  and  Hawkins.     Many 

quoted,  and  refers  to  Mazella,  Istoria  del  Regno  di  Napoli,  p.  709,  as  his  authority. 
I  have  referred  to  both  works  of  Mazella,  and  have  given  the  gist  of  what  he  says  ; 
but  I  can  discover  no  authority  for  the  statement  that  the  father  of  Baldassare 
Cossa  was  Count  of  Troja,  who  was,  as  is  well  known,  a  trusted  general  of  King 
Ladislas  of  Naples,  the  bitter  enemy  of  Baldassare  Cossa. 
'  Cf.  Hunger,  31.  "^  Barante,  iii.  7. 


BALDASSARE  COSSA  143 

a  castle  in  Piediiiont,  where  the  hills  sloped  down  to  the  coast, 
was  owned  by  a  baron  who  divided  his  time  between  brigandage 
on  the  land  and  piracy  on  the  seas.  To  be  a  roving  corsair  on 
the  deep  water  was  in  those  days  almost  as  respectable  a  voca- 
tion as  that  of  a  knight-errant  on  land.^  There  were  scores  of 
such  corsairs  in  and  around  the  Bay  of  Naples;  and  a  man 
might  be  a  pirate  and  yet  find  place  and  favour  in  the  papal 
court.2  Baldassare  Cossa  had  been  brought  up  by  the  sea,  and 
was  ever  a  man  of  action.  He  joined  his  brothers,  and  was 
the  boy  of  the  party.  It  is  easy  to  picture  them,  with  their 
long  low  galleys,  painted  dark  green,  and  manned  with  a 
hundred  oarsmen  and  fifty  soldiers  apiece,  all  of  whom  had 
been  sworn  in  on  the  Gospels,  and  also  by  bread,  wine,  and 
salt.^  1'hey  would  lurk  toward  evening  in  some  creek  off 
Ischia  or  Procida,  on  the  watch  for  the  round  sailing-boats, 
the  nefs  or  coques  or  Genoese  panzonos,  which  came  coasting 
along,  two  or  three  together  for  mutual  protection.  As  the 
sun  went  down  and  the  twilight  gathered  over  the  rapidly 
darkening  waters,  their  prey  would  appear  and  the  galleys 
would  dash  out  to  board  them.  Often  enough  they  would 
find  that  they  had  caught  a  Tartar,  for  the  merchantmen  were 
on  the  lookout  for  the  ocean  thieves.  If  the  cargo  was  valu- 
able, the  owner  was  probably  on  board,  and  to  his  advice  the 
captain  would  defer  :  men-at-arms  filled  the  belly  of  the  sailing- 
ship  ;  a  smart  fight  would  ensue ;  and  if  needful  the  retinue  of 
the  poop,  whose  duty  it  was  to  defend  the  flag  to  the  last 
man,  would  be  called  into  action.  The  stir  and  dash  of  the 
fight  would  delight  the  warlike  soul  of  young  Cossa. 

When  in  1382  the  Angevin  troops  came  over  from  France 
to  Naples,  the  brothers  joined  them,  and  their  piracy  became 
thus  converted  into  legitimate  warfare.  This  war  lasted  until 
1384,  and  as  that  with  the  younger  Louis  of  Anjou  did  not 
begin   until   three  years  later,  it  is  only  in  the  former  that 

^  Even  a  century  and  a  half  later  piracy  was  still  '  an  inseparable  accident  of 
Mediterranean  life,  and  the  normal  depredations  of  the  Barbary  syndicate  or  of 
the  Knights  of  St.  John  were  no  more  regarded  as  acts  of  war  entailing  the 
rupture  of  a  peace  than  were  cattle-lifting  raids  on  the  Anglo-Scottish  frontier.' — 
Armstrong:    The  Einperor  Charles  V.,  ii.  238. 

-  De  Sc  his  mate,  83. 

'  La  Croix,  Vie  Mililaire,  TJ  et  seq. 


144     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

Baldassare  Cossa  can  have  taken  part,^  He  soon  grew 
tired  of  a  corsair's  life,  though  the  habit  of  wakefulness  at 
night,  which  may  have  been  thus  acquired,  never  forsook  him. 
It  was  probably  strengthened  later  on  when  he  was  in  the 
court  of  Boniface  the  Ninth,  for  that  Pope  used  to  sleep  from 
the  hour  of  prime  on  to  vespers,  and  to  recite  his  office  at 
night.^  When  Cossa  was  a  Cardinal  at  Rome,  his  habit  was 
not  to  rise  till  midday,  then  to  hear  Mass,  and  then  to  get 
shaved.^  The  story  of  his  having  commenced  life  as  a  pirate 
rests  solely  on  the  authority  of  his  enemy  Dietrich  von  Nieni ; 
no  other  author  makes  mention  of  it. 

Baldassare  Cossa  was  at  this  time  a  young  man,  robust  and 
square-set,  handsome  of  face,  with  dark  penetrating  eyes,^  and 
rather  high  cheek-bones ;  ready  of  wit  and  ready  of  speech  ;  a 
Neapolitan  with  a  vein  of  sardonic  humour  in  him  ;  sufficiently 
wealthy,  active,  intelligent,  and  ambitious.  He  was  a  man  of 
the  world,  neither  better  nor  worse  than  his  contemporaries  ;  ^ 
an  Italian  with  all  an  Italian's  love  and  admiration  for  virtu, 
for  force,  courage,  ability,  virility.  He  also  possessed  the 
Italian  fault  of  judging  men  too  exclusively  by  his  own 
standard,  of  taking  his  own  good  points  for  granted  and  attri- 
buting them  to  others.  He  now  desired  a  nobler  fortune  and 
a  wider  fame ;  he  was  a  bom  ruler  of  men,  eloquent  and  per- 

^  Niem  says  (Hardt,  ii.  338)  : — '  Dum  autem  simplex  clericus,  ac  in  adole- 
scentia  constitutus  existeret,  cum  quibusdam  fratribus  suis  piraticam  in  mari 
Neapolitano,  ut  fertur,  exercuit.  Quis  tunce  inter  quondam  Ladislaum  Regem 
Siciliae,  defunctum  noviter,  &  Dn.  Ludovicum,  ducem  Abdegavensem  .  .  . 
periculosa  guerra  .  .  .  vigebat.  .  .  .  Sed  cum  postea,  fortuna  suadente,  dictus 
Ladislaus  Rex  legnum  ipsum,  expulsis  inde  dicto  Domino  Ludovico  ejusque  in 
magna  parte  auxiliatoribus,  &  subactis  ibidem  aliis  hostibus  suis,  qualitercunque 
obtinuisset,  &  praeterea  raptoribus  &  piratis  .  .  .  licentia  subtracta  fuisset : 
Ipse  Balthasar  Cossa  se  transtulit.'  The  remark  that  it  was  not  until  after 
Louis  of  Anjou  had  been  expelled  from  Italy  that  Baldassare  Cossa  ceased  piracy 
and  went  to  Bologna,  shows  that  the  war  referred  to  by  Niem  must  be  the  first 
war  (1382- 1 384)  between  the  first  Duke  of  Anjou  and  Charles  of  Durazzo,  rather 
than  the  second  war  between  the  second  Duke  of  Anjou  and  Ladislas,  in  which 
the  Duke  did  not  finally  leave  Italy  until  after  the  battle  of  Rocca  Secca.  This 
is  borne  out  by  the  next  remark  of  Niem  on  Baldassare  Cossa's  residence  in 
Bologna,  '  ubi  licet  multis  annis  sub  studentis  figura  stetisset' ;  for  if  Cossa  after 
many  years  as  a  student  became  Archdeacon  of  Bologna  in  1392,  it  must  have 
been  the  first  war  between  Naples  and  Anjou  in  which  he  took  part. 
2  De  Schismate,  137.  ^  Mur.  xxiv.  1005. 

*  Lindner  {H.  and  L.\  ii.  284.  '  Erler,  341. 


BALDASSARE  COSSA  145 

suasive ;  he  would  have  made  a  successful  condottiere  general, 
or  he  might  become  a  worthy  follower  of  Cardinal  Albomoz. 
Time  was  to  show  that  he  lacked  one  characteristic  necessary 
for  the  highest  success,  for  he  was  by  no  means  an  infallible 
judge  of  men  or  of  character.     A  strong  man,  he  delighted  to 
see  himself  surrounded  by  strong  men  ;  he  loved  learning  and 
eloquence ;  ^  but  he  was  apt  to  select  his  subordinates  simply 
for  their  worth  and    reputation,   without   regarding  whether 
their  very  virtue  would   permit  them   to   render  service  and 
fidelity  to  himself.     This  will  be  manifested  more  than  once 
in  the  story  of  his  life.     To  such  a  man  as  Baldassare  Cossa 
there   were  then   in   Italy  practically  but  two  careers  open : 
unless  he  became  a  Doctor  at  some  University,  he  must  either 
be  a  soldier  of  fortune,  a  leader  of  his  own  troops,  or  he  must 
be  a  churchman.     He  might,  since  Italy  was  then  learning  to 
use  the  sons  of  her  soil  and  to  do  without  foreign  mercenaries,^ 
like  Alberigo  de  Barbiano,  raise  a  band  of  Italian  soldiery  and 
emulate  the  fame  of  Jacopo  del  Verme.     To   do  this  would 
entail  a  training  in  the  art  of  practical  warfare,  which  required 
time  and  opportunity ;  it  demanded  the  ability  to  deal  with 
and  to  enforce  obedience  from  the  roughest  and  most  brutal 
parts  of  humanity  among  Italians,  or  mayhap  of  still  more 
intractable  troops  among  foreigners,  and  in  this  his  experience 
on  the  sea  might  have  been  of  service  had  he  been  older  and 
his  training  more  prolonged  ;  it  would  also  have  necessitated  a 
large  preliminary  outlay  of  capital  to  provide  the  very  heavy 
pay  then  offered  to  cavaliers,  and  this  it  was  probably  beyond 
his  means  to  procure.     The  calling  of  a  condottiere  general  was 
undoubtedly  that  for  which  Baldassare  Cossa  was  most  fitted  ; 
he  was,  as  has  been   well  said,  '  homo  callidics  et  astutus,  sed 
parum  aptus  religioni.''  ^     But  the  Church  offered  the  readier 
and  more  promising  career.     More  especially  was  this  the  case 
when  the   Pope  was  himself  a  Neapolitan,   eager  to   bestow 
advancement  on   his   fellow-countrymen.      It   was    not  many 
years  before  this   time  that  Urban  the  Sixth  had   raised  in 
a  single  day  no  less  than  thirty-two  Neapolitans  to  be  arch- 
bishops, bishops,  and  abbots,  so  that  men  said  there  was  no 
countryman  of  the  Pope  so  wretched  or  stupid  that  he  might 
^  Duchesne,  ii.  555.  ^  Mur.  xix.  919.  -^  Duchesne,  ii.  555. 


146     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCH.S 

not  look  for  similar  promotion. ^  The  Pope  was  ready  to 
promote  a  clerk  to  be  cardinal,  regardless  of  his  character,  if 
he  were  of  his  party  and  a  Neapolitan.^  Be  the  reason  what 
it  may,  Baldassare  Cossa  chose  the  older  and  more  honourable 
profession.  In  order  rightly  to  appreciate  his  choice  we  must 
remember  that  its  object  was  not  the  ideal  Church,  nor  the 
Church  as  we  know  it  to-day,  but  the  Church  at  the  end  of 
the  fourteenth  century  as  we  have  attempted  to  describe  it, 
and  as  it  appeared  to  a  man  of  the  world  and  a  man  of  action 
at  that  time. 

The  time  was  the  commencement  of  the  Great  Schism,  when 
the  seamless  robe  of  Christ  was  being  rent  in  twain  between 
the  rival  claimants.  In  those  early  days  of  the  disruption,  the 
idea  of  referring  the  matter  to  the  decision  of  a  general  council 
was  scouted  as  being  at  once  too  difficult  and  too  dilatory; 
the  suggestion  generally  accepted  was  that  the  intruder  should 
be  expelled  by  force,  and  that  all  Christendom  should  thus  be 
again  brought  into  obedience  to  a  single  Pope.  The  idea  that 
there  might  be  more  than  one  Pope  was  merely  academical, 
and  found  no  popular  favour.  The  adherents  of  each  Pope 
claimed  that  he  alone  should  be  the  sole  Pope,  and  that  all 
countries  should  render  obedience  to  him.  To  carry  out  this 
idea  Clement  the  Seventh  pretended  to  create  a  Kingdom 
of  Adria  in  favour  of  the  Duke  of  Anjou,  and  thus  to  enfeoff 
him  with  the  greater  part  of  the  States  of  the  Church  in 
addition  to  the  Kingdom  of  Naples. 

The  first  serious  attempt  to  end  the  Schism  by  the  '  way  of 
facf  was  the  expedition  of  the  Duke  of  Anjou  for  the  conquest 
of  Naples.  The  objects  of  that  expedition  were  the  reconquest 
of  the  kingdom  and  the  expulsion  of  the  intruder,  as  Urban 
the  Sixth  was  called  by  the  adherents  of  Clement.  When  he 
first  heard  of  the  capture  of  Queen  Joanna,  his  adoptive 
mother,  the  Duke  had  seriously  meditated  the  abandonment 
of  his  claim  ;  subsequently  he  had  reconsidered  his  decision 
and  had  determined  to  drive  out  Charles  of  Durazzo.  Having 
pillaged  France  as  much  as  he  could,  the  Duke  took  his  way  to 
Avignon,  arriving  there  on  the  22nd  February  1382 ;  on  the 
1st  March  he  was  recognised  by  Pope  Clement  as  Duke  of 
1  De  Schismate,  51.  -  Il^id.  81, 


BALDASSARK  COSSA  147 

Calabria ;  on  the  80th  May  he  received  a  banner  bearing  the 
arms  of  Sicily  and  Jerusalem  and  did  homage  to  Clement  for 
his  future  kingdom ;  on  the  13th  June  he  set  out  with  his 
army.  It  had  been  necessary  to  wait  until  the  snows  melted. 
The  expedition  was  financed  for  the  most  part  by  Clement  the 
Seventh  ;  the  Visconti  of  Milan  also  contributed  considerable 
sums.  It  was  doomed  to  disastrous  failure.  The  Duke  tarried 
a  month  at  Turin  on  his  way  to  Bologna;  thence  he  marched 
by  the  Adriatic  to  the  borders  of  Ancona,  where  he  broke  up 
his  forces  into  three  parts ;  with  one  he  marched  past  Rome, 
left  Urban  in  possession  of  the  city  without  attempting  to 
oust  him,  and  made  for  Aquila ;  here  at  last,  on  the  17th 
September  1382,  he  was  in  the  promised  land.  Had  he 
marched  at  once  on  Naples,  had  he  occupied  some  port  so 
as  to  communicate  with  his  fleet,  the  result  of  his  enterprise 
might  have  been  different.  Charles  of  Durazzo  pursued  with 
Louis  of  Anjou  that  policy  of  masterly  inactivity  which  Charles 
the  Fifth  of  France  had  so  successfully  pursued  with  England. 
To  begin  with,  he  sent  him  a  cartel  of  defiance  ;  and  nearly 
three  months  were  wasted  in  vacant  preliminaries.  Then 
pestilence  carried  off  Amadeus  of  Savoy,  the  '  Green  Count,"" 
and  the  Duke  of  Anjou  regretfully  saw  the  Savoyards  wend 
their  way  homeward.  He  gained  some  slight  advantages  at 
Pietracatella  and  Aquila;  his  banner  floated  in  Calabria  and 
Apulia,  in  Abruzzi  and  Basilicata,  and  in  the  Terra  di  Lavoro. 
The  quarrel  between  Pope  Urban  and  Charles  raised  the 
Duke's  hopes ;  but  want  of  money  kept  him  inactive  for  nine 
months  at  Tarentum,  until  he  was  lured  thence  by  the  hope  of 
fighting  a  decisive  engagement  at  Barletta.  The  two  armies 
were  within  a  mile  of  each  other;  for  three  days  the  Duke 
expected  an  assault ;  then  the  King  marched  away  again,  and 
the  Duke  was  fain  to  retrace  his  steps  to  Tarentum.  The  end 
was  near.  The  Duke  caught  a  chill  at  Biseglia  in  trying 
to  stop  his  men  from  pillaging ;  he  took  to  his  bed,  and  died 
on  the  21st  September  1384.  His  glorious  army  of  nearly  a 
hundred  thousand  men  had  been  wasted  by  disease,  by  privation, 
and  by  the  climate ;  cavaliers  who  had  left  France  richly 
caparisoned,  their  purses  full  of  gold,  their  garments  sparkling 
lyith  precious  stones,  returned  on  foot,  staff  in  hand,  begging 


148     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

their  way.  Cliarles  of  Durazzo  was  King  of  Naples;  the 
attempted  conquest  of  the  country,  the  attempt  to  end  the 
Schism  by  the  '  way  of  fact,'  had  disastrously  failed. 

Even  before  the  death  of  Duke  Louis  there  had  been  mis- 
understandings between  Pope  Urban  and  Charles  of  Durazzo. 
The  Pope,  who  wished  to  enrich  his  worthless  nephew  Butillo 
at  the  expense  of  the  King,  had  come  to  Nocera,  and  claimed 
to  be  Lord  Paramount  of  the  Kingdom  of  Naples.  As  a 
practical  retort  Queen  Marguerite  stopped  all  imports  to 
Nocera  and  reduced  the  papal  party  to  such  straits  that  the 
cardinals  and  the  Curia  fled  to  Naples.  The  Pope  appeared 
three  or  four  times  a  day  for  five  months  at  the  windows  of  his 
castle  and  cursed  the  King  and  Queen  of  Naples  with  bell 
and  candle.  The  cardinals  thought  he  was  mad,  and  decided 
that  he  needed  curators  to  be  appointed;  but  one  of  them, 
the  Cardinal  of  Manupello,  played  the  traitor  and  informed 
Urban  of  the  design.  He  convened  a  Consistory  of  the 
cardinals,  seized  six  of  them,  threw  them  into  cramped  and 
noisome  dungeons,  tortured  them,  and  finally  sailed  away  with 
them  to  Genoa.  Here  five  of  them  mysteriously  disappeared — 
no  one  knew  how  they  had  been  done  to  death ;  the  sixth, 
Aston,  an  Englishman,  was  released  at  the  intercession  of 
King  Richard  the  Second. 

Then  followed,  as  has  been  already  related,  the  ill-fated 
attempt  of  Charles  of  Durazzo  to  secure  the  crown  of  Hungary. 
His  murder  left  the  succession  to  the  kingdom  of  Naples  to  be 
fought  out  between  two  boys,  his  son  Ladislas,  aged  ten,  and 
Louis  the  Second  of  Anjou,  aged  seven.  Although  Pope 
Clement  recognised  Louis  as  King  of  Naples,  the  royal  princes 
who  ruled  France  during  the  minority  of  Charles  the  Sixth 
were  cold  or  hostile  to  his  claims.  The  death  by  poison  of 
Bernabo  Visconti  had  also  robbed  the  boy  of  a  supporter  and 
of  a  bride,  for  Louis  was  to  have  married  Bernabo's  daughter 
Lucie.  In  place  of  this  alliance  Gian  Galeazzo  Visconti,  the 
murderer  of  his  uncle  Bernabo,  gave  his  daughter  Valentine 
on  the  8th  April  1387  to  the  French  King's  brother,  Louis 
of  Touraine,  afterwards  Duke  of  Orleans.  This  retained  for 
Milan  the  French  alliance,  but  did  not  help  the  cause  of 
Clement,  for  Gian  Galeazzo  managed  to  keep  on  terms  with 


BALDASSARE  COSSA  149 

both  Popes.  Clement  and  the  French  King  also  made  over- 
tures to  the  Florentines,  but  those  wary  republicans  declared 
that  the  claims  of  the  contending  French  houses  in  Naples 
were  matters  too  great  for  them,  and  that  they  could  not 
possibly  renounce  their  obedience  to  Pope  Urban  until  a 
general  council  had  decided  against  him.^  Viterbo  and  other 
cities  in  Southern  Italy  were  gradually  won  over  to  Urban, 
who,  however,  had  transferred  to  the  young  Ladislas  the  hatred 
which  he  had  borne  to  his  father  Charles  of  Durazzo,  whom  he 
had  excommunicated  and  damned  to  the  third  and  fourth 
generation.  The  rougli  and  uncompromising  demeanour  of 
the  Pope  had  driven  Tuscany,  Romagna,  and  Lombardy  into 
a  threatening  league  at  the  very  time  that  the  King  of  France, 
throwing  off  the  guidance  of  his  uncles  and  calling  the  'Mar- 
mousets"'  to  power,  had  espoused  the  cause  of  his  young  cousin, 
Louis  of  Anjou.  The  King  and  the  Duke  came  to  Avignon, 
on  All  Saints'  Day,  1389  ;  Louis  of  Anjou,  in  white  samite,  did 
homage  to  Pope  Clement  for  the  kingdoms  of  Sicily,  was 
anointed  with  holy  oil,  and  received  from  the  pontiff  the 
sword,  the  globe,  the  sceptre,  and  the  crown.  The  King  and 
the  Pope  had  clearly  determined  to  support  his  cause  and 
to  try  again  the  '  way  of  fact ' ;  but  before  anything  decisive 
could  follow,  while  the  King  was  still  in  Languedoc,  came  the 
news  of  the  death  of  Pope  Urban  the  Sixth.  When  this 
haj)pened  Baldassare  Cossa  was  still  reading  law,  the  indis- 
pensable study  for  any  man  who  hoped  to  rise  in  the  Church, 
at  the  University. 

In  order  to  fit  himself  for  an  ecclesiastical  career,  Cossa  had 
gone  to  the  University  at  Bologna.  That  ancient  city  on  the 
Aemilian  Way  lay  '  at  the  intersection  of  four  provinces — 
Lombardy,  the  March  of  Verona,  the  Roman diola,  and  Tuscany. 
To  this  day  it  is  the  point  at  which  converge  all  the  great 
lines  of  communication  between  the  northern  entrances  to 
Italy  and  its  centre ;  in  that  age  there  was  no  place  better 
situated  for  a  meeting-place  between  the  students  of  Italy 
and  students  from  beyond  the  Alps.'  ^  The  school  in  Bologna 
was  the  most  famous  in  Italy ;  its  only  respectable  rivals  at 
this  time  outside  the  peninsula  were  the  schools  at   Paris, 

1  Tartini,  li.  140.  '  Rashdall,  i.  118. 


150    IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

Oxford,  and  Prague.  But  while  the  greatest  of  these,  Paris, 
was  specially  the  school  of  theology,  Bologna  was  pre-eminently 
the  school  of  law.  This  was  but  the  natural  result  of  pre- 
existent  conditions.  '  The  Scholastic  Philosophy  and  Theology 
of  the  later  Middle  Ages  were  the  natural  fruits  of  the  seed 
sown  in  Northern  France,  England,  and  Germany  by  the 
Dialecticians  of  the  Dark  Ages.  The  revival  of  legal  science 
which  is  associated  with  the  name  of  Irnerius  was  the  natural 
outcome  of  the  educational  traditions  which  the  cities  of 
North  Italy  had  inherited  from  that  old  Roman  world  to 
which  alike  in  spirit  and  in  constitutional  theory  they  had 
never  wholly  ceased  to  belong.'  ^  In  Italy  at  the  close  of  the 
fourteenth  century  no  one  but  the  Mendicant  Friars  ever 
thought  of  studying  theology :  the  spiritual  monarchy  of  the 
Church  of  Rome  was  established  not  upon  theology,  but  upon 
the  Canon  Law ;  the  sacerdotal  hierarchy  was  a  hierarchy  of 
lawyers;  all  through  the  Middle  Ages  the  most  important  sees 
in  Christendom  were  filled  by  Canonists.  Early  in  the  twelfth 
century  the  lectures  of  Irnerius  on  the  Corpus  Juris  Civilis, 
which  were  followed  by  the  publication  in  1151  by  Gratian  of 
the  Decretum,  the  authoritative  text-book  on  the  Canon  Law, 
had  attracted  students  from  all  parts  of  Europe ;  they  came 
in  such  numbers  that  Odofredus,  writing  in  the  middle  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  was  of  opinion  that  at  the  end  of  the  pre- 
ceding century  there  were  not  less  than  ten  thousand  students 
in  Bologna.  Many  of  these  came  from  across  the  Alps  ;  they 
were  men  of  mature  years,  already  provided  with  livings,  and 
with  dispensations  for  study.  Barbarossa,  in  his  day,  had  done 
the  foreign  students  a  good  turn.^  The  pursuit  of  learning  was 
attended  with  difficulties  in  those  turbulent  times.  Sometimes 
the  students  would  be  robbed  by  armed  bands  as  they  ap- 
proached the  city ;  ^  occasionally  a  student  would  himself 
'  hold  up  '  the  school  with  hired  ruffians ;  a  rector  had  been 
assassinated  by  a  scholar  in  1303,  and  another  attempt  of 
the  same  kind  was  made  while  Baldassare  Cossa  was  himself 
at  Bologna.*  The  students  from  outside  Bologna  had,  for  the 
purpose  of  self-protection,  formed  themselves  into  Universities,^ 

^  Rashdall,  i.  94.  ^  Giesebrecht,  v.  42.         ^  Frati,  109.  ■*  Ibid.  107. 

°  '  Citizenship,  which  with  us  is  little  more  than  an  accident  of  domicile,  was 


BALDASSARE  COSSA  151 

which  at  first  were  four,  but  were  afterwards  two  in  number, 
the  Universitas  Citraniontanorum  and  the  Universitas  Ultra- 
montanorum.  By  the  time  Baldassare  Cossa  placed  his  name 
on  the  list  of  members,  these  two  Universities  had  become 
practically  fused  into  one.  Many  of  the  students  were  young, 
many  of  the  Italian  freshmen  were  mere  boys  of  thirteen  ;  but 
others  among  the  Ultramontanes  were  beneficed  clergymen, 
some  being  dignitaries  or  canons.  Books  were  both  bulky 
and  costly ;  the  poorer  students  were  apt  to  fall  into  the 
hands  of  usurers,  or  even  into  those  of  their  own  readers  who 
were  not  ashamed  to  exact  scandalous  interest  from  them. 
The  nobles  sat  in  the  front  row  at  lecture,  wore  the  same  black 
gown  as  the  other  students,  but  lived  with  their  own  servants 
in  separate  houses,  the  rent  of  which  was  fixed  by  the  taxers 
and  city-arbitrators.  In  those  days  it  was  scarcely  possible 
for  the  students  to  return  home  for  the  shorter  vacations,  so 
that  the  year  lasted  from  10th  October  until  the  end  of  the 
following  August. 

Baldassare  Cossa  applied  himself  to  the  study  of  the  Canon 
Law,  and  of  its  indispensable  preliminary  the  Civil  Law.  The 
Bologna  school,  as  already  mentioned,  was  a  practical  law 
school  ;  there  was  no  Faculty  of  Theology  until  1352,  and 
'the  consequences  of  this  constitutional  peculiarity  were  of 
the  highest  importance.  From  the  schools  of  Bologna  strictly 
theological  speculation  was  practically  banished,  and  with  it 
all  the  heresy,  all  the  religious  thought,  all  the  religious  life 
to  which  speculation  gives  rise.'  ^  To  this  lack  of  early  training 
must  in  some  degree  be  attributed  the  want  of  sympathy  and 
comprehension  which  marked  Cossa  when  he  entered  into 
relations  and  subsequently  into  conflicts  with  the  churchmen 
of  France,  to  whom  theological  strife  and  controversy  were  as 

in  ancient  Athens  or  mediaeval  Bologna  an  hereditary  possession  of  priceless 
value.  The  citizens  of  one  town  had,  in  the  absence  of  express  agreement,  no 
civil  rights  in  another.  There  was  one  law  for  the  citizens  ;  another,  and  a 
much  harsher  one,  for  the  alien.  Prolonged  exile  was  a  serious  penalty  to 
which  a  body  of  young  men  of  good  position  in  their  own  cities,  many  of  them 
old  enough  to  be  entering  upon  political  life,  would  naturally  submit  with  reluct- 
ance. The  Student-Universities  represent  an  attempt  on  the  part  of  such  men 
to  create  for  themselves  an  artificial  citizenship  in  place  of  the  natural  citizenship 
which  they  had  temporarily  renounced  in  the  pursuit  of  knowledge  or  advance- 
ment.'—Rashdall,  i.  152.  ^  Rashdall,  i.  261. 


152     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

the  breath  of  their  nostrils.  He  was  all  through  life  a  practical 
man  of  action,  never  a  man  of  speculation  or  thought;  he 
understood  what  was,  he  thought  little  of  what  should  be. 
His  training  at  Bologna  intensified  this  habit  of  mind.  The 
course  of  Civil  Law  and  Canon  Law  lectures  then  took  ten 
years;  and  probably  Cossa  remained  at  Bologna  the  whole 
ten  years,  for  we  know  that  he  was  there  for  many  years — 
'  multis  annis  sub  studentis  figura,''  says  Niem  ^ — attending 
the  lectures  at  the  houses  of  the  Doctors.  The  morning 
lecture,  which  was  the  most  important,  began  as  soon  as  the 
bell  rang  for  Mass  at  nine  in  the  morning  in  the  Cathedral  of 
San  Pietro,  and  it  continued  until  the  bell  rang  again  for 
tierce ;  in  the  afternoon,  from  three  to  six  of  the  clock,  there 
might  be  two  further  lectures.  Cossa  won  renown  for  his 
scholarship  ;  he  satisfied  the  examiners  of  both  Faculties,  and 
became  a  Doctor  Utriusque  Juris.  The  day  of  the  public 
examination,  before  which  the  candidate  had  already  satisfied 
his  promoters  as  to  his  fitness,  was  an  occasion  for  considerable 
pageantry.  The  candidate,  preceded  by  the  bedels  and  escorted 
by  his  fellow-students,  marched  on  foot  or  on  horseback  to  the 
Cathedral,  where  he  made  a  speech  and  read  and  defended  a 
thesis  on  some  point  of  law,  after  which  he  was  presented  to 
the  Archdeacon.  This  dignitary  then  made  a  complimentary 
oration  and  conferred  on  him  the  right  to  teach.  The  new 
Doctor  was  then  seated  in  the  magisterial  chair,  the  book  of 
the  law  was  handed  to  him,  the  gold  ring  placed  on  his 
finger,  and  the  magisterial  biretta  on  his  head  ;  then  he  was 
conducted  in  triumph  through  the  town,  escorted  by  a  mounted 
cavalcade  of  friends  and  students,  preceded  by  the  three 
University  pipers  and  the  four  University  trumpeters. ^  As 
his  fellow-students  clustered  round  Baldassare  Cossa  and  in- 
quired what  he  was  going  to  do  now,  he  answered  them  :  '  To 
be  Pope.'^     It  was  a  true  word  spoken  in  jest. 

It  would  be  interesting  to  know  whether  Baldassare  Cossa 
met  at  the  University  of  Bologna  any  of  those  who  were  asso- 
ciated with  him  in  after  life.  If  he  was  indeed  born  in  1368, 
then  his  friend  Carlo  Malatesta,  Lord  of  Rimini,  a  well-read 
man  who  delighted  in  literature,  and  his  future  general,  Braccio 
^  Hardt,  ii.  338.  ^  Rashdall,  i.  230;  Frati,  119.  ^  Platina,  343. 


BALDASSARE  COSSA  158 

da  Montone,  both  of  whom  were  born  in  that  year,  may  have 
been  fellow-students  with  him  at  the  University. 

The  pious,  just,  and  incorruptible  but  headstrong,  cruel,  and 
foolishly  impolitic  Pope  Urban  the  Sixth  died  in  the  Vatican 
Palace  at  Rome  on  the  loth  October  1389.  He  had  left  Genoa 
for  Lucca  at  the  end  of  1386,  and  had  come  on  to  Perugia  on 
the  2nd  October  1387.  Here  he  had  a  fall  from  his  horse,  but 
undaunted  he  tried  to  get  together  an  army  to  conquer  Naples. 
Funds  failed  him,  and  he  betook  himself  to  Rome  (Sept.  1388), 
where  he  found  the  city  in  uproar.  He  tried  to  appease  the 
citizens  by  appointing  1390  as  a  year  of  Jubilee.  As  usual,  when 
a  Pope  died,  there  were  rumours  that  he  had  been  poisoned. 
The  cardinals  entered  forthwith  into  conclave,  and  on  the  2nd 
November  announced  that  they  had  elected  his  successor. 

This  was  Pietro  Tomacelli,  another  Neapolitan,  who  took 
the  title  of  Boniface  the  Ninth,  a  name  which  augured  no 
friendly  feelings  to  the  French  court.  Noble,  tall,  handsome, 
and  but  thirty  years  of  age,^  of  unimpeachable  morality,  not  over 
learned,  but  courteous  and  affable,  the  new  Pope  was  in  almost 
every  respect  the  opposite  of  his  predecessor.-  Boniface  rein- 
stated the  cardinals  whom  Urban  had  ousted,  and  set  to  work 
forthwith  to  win  back  the  temporalities  of  the  Church.  He 
was  convinced  that  it  was  necessary  that  the  Pope  should  be 
able  to  live  'of  his  own'  without  outside  support,  and  the 
difficulty  of  procuring  revenue  from  distant  lands  supported  this 
view.3  He  welcomed  the  overtures  of  Marguerite  of  Durazzo, 
and  sent  a  cardinal  to  Gaeta  to  anoint  and  crown  her  young 
son  Ladislas.*  Thus  the  Pope  at  Rome  became  the  recognised 
supporter  of  the  house  of  Durazzo  on  the  throne  of  Naples, 
and  it  became  the  policy  of  that  house  to  support  unquestion- 
ingly  the  Pope  at  Rome. 

Italy  was  at  this  time  overrun  by  bands  of  English, 
Italian,  and  German  soldiers,  sometimes  taking  part  in  the 
petty  wars  between  rival  factions  in  town  and  city,  some- 
times plundering  the  land  on  their  own  account ;  harvests 
were  burned,  vineyards  and  olive-groves  were  hewn  down. 
There  were  also  a  number  of  stiong  places  which  held  to  the 

^  Minerbetti  indeed  says  twenty-four ;  Tartini,  ii.  190.  -  Mur.  iii.  832. 

'  Raumer,  183.  *  Tartini,  ii.  206. 


154     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

obedience  of  the   Pope  at  Avignon,  and  so  long  as  Urban 
lived  their  number  was  not  reduced ;  but  with  the  new  Pope 
came  a  change.     Boniface  set  to  work  to  reduce  some,  to  win 
over  others ;  every  year  of  his  reign  saw  an  improvement  in 
the    state    of   Italy.     He    gained    Viterbo,    which   iiad    again 
revolted,    Montefiascone,    Narni,    Spoleto,    Orvieto,    Bologna, 
Ancona,  Perugia,  and   otlier  cities.     Noble  families,  such  as 
the  Este,  Montefeltre,  Malatesti,  Alidosi,  Manfredi,  Ordelaffi, 
acknowledged  his  overlordship.     Rome  herself  abandoned  her 
repubHcan  independence,  and  admitted  the  full  dominium  of 
the  Pope ;  the  Engelsburg  was  restored,  the  Capitol  and  the 
Vatican  were  fortified.^     Thus  Boniface  the  Ninth  reinstated 
the  papal  dominions  in  their  former  splendour,  and  so  far  he 
was  one  of  the  most  successful  Popes  who  ever  filled  the  chair 
of  Saint  Peter.     But  these  schemes  demanded  money,  and  the 
Schism  had  reduced  the  ordinary  revenues  by  one  half.     The 
Pope  did  not  hesitate  to  prostitute  the  spiritual  to  the  temporal 
interest  of  the  Church.     He  reaped  enormous  wealth  from  the 
Jubilees  of  1390  and  1400  ;  he  increased  the  sale  of  indulgences  ; 
under  him  simony  reached  its  climax.     It  was  useless  for  a  poor 
man  to  appear  in  the  papal  court ;  everything,  even  a  signature, 
had  to  be  paid  for;   and   if,  after  the  first   payment  for  a 
benefice    had    been   accepted,  a   better  offer   was   made,  this 
second  offer  was  accepted   also,  and  the  grant  or  order  was 
antedated.     An  utterly  shameless  system  of  repeated  sales  of 
presentations  became  recognised.     In  every  possible  way  money 
was   accumulated.      Personally  the   hands    of   Boniface  were 
clean,  for  he  spent  every  penny  on    the    Church ;   but    this 
cannot  excuse  the  system  which  he  enforced.^ 

Meantime  the  young  Duke  of  Anjou  sailed  for  Naples  and 
entered  the  city  under  the  banner  of  Clement  the  Seventh ; ' 
he  conquered  divers  castles  and  cities,  and  tried  to  tempt 
Ladislas  to  a  pitched  battle  at  Aversa.  War  in  Apulia  was 
continuous,  much  damage  was  done,  and  the  peasants  suffered 
grievous  hardships.*  The  King  of  France  had  announced  that 
he  was  himself  about  to  invade  Italy,  bringing  Pope  Clement 
in  his  train ;  but  his  project  was  stopped  by  the  English  am- 

1  Erler,  88.  ^  Goeller,  2. 

3  Tartini,  ii.  226.  ■*  /6td.  ii.  242,  333. 


BALDASSARE  COSSA  155 

bassadors,  who  required  him  to  come  and  meet  their  King. 
The  meeting  never  took  place,  and  a  fresh  violent  attack  of 
madness  caused  the  plan  to  be  postponed  indefinitely  and 
threw  the  kingdom  again  under  the  fitful  guidance  of  the  royal 
princes.  Clement  the  Seventh,  who  had  spent  nearly  five 
hundred  thousand  francs  on  the  '  way  of  fact ""  since  the  death 
of  the  first  Duke  of  Anjou,  was  destined  to  see  one  project 
after  another  promise  fair  and  then  fade  away  before  his  eyes. 
The  '  way  of  fact '  was  the  only  method  of  terminating  the 
Schism  of  which  he  dreamed ;  it  was  the  method  on  which 
he  cheerfully  spent  his  revenues,  and  it  failed  him  utterly. 

In  addition  to  its  other  disadvantages,  the  '  way  of  fact ' 
was  undoubtedly  the  most  costly  method  of  ending  the  Schism. 
It  entailed  on  Pope  Clement  an  enormous  expenditure.  He 
had  also  the  Conitat  to  defend  against  the  rapacity  of  nobles 
such  as  Raymond  of  Turenne  ;  he  had  to  pay  for  his  feasts  to 
the  King  and  the  royal  princes,  and  he  abated  no  whit  of  the 
customary  pomp  of  the  papal  court.  He  was  lavish  in  his 
gifts  to  the  cardinals,  who  were  allowed  to  seize  on  benefices 
right  and  left.  He  granted  permission  to  the  King  and 
princes  to  tax  the  clergy  to  an  extent  hitherto  unapproached, 
so  that  instead  of  being  known  as  '  the  Servant  of  the  servants 
of  God  ■■  he  was  popularly  called  '  the  Servant  of  the  servants  of 
the  French  King.'  The  clergy  were  sore  oppressed.  In  ad- 
dition to  the  aids  which  they  were  obliged  to  pay  to  the  King, 
they  had  also  to  pay  tenths  to  the  Pope  ;  they  were  called  on 
for  voluntary  subsidies,  for  forced  loans,  for  first-fruits,  for 
services,  for  procurations,  and  for  spoils ;  benefices,  moreover, 
were  only  granted  to  those  who  paid  most  highly  for  them. 
The  povertv-stricken  Church  of  France  was  thus  most  cruelly 
exploited,  and  it  is  small  wonder  that  the  clergy  became  luke- 
warm in  their  attachment  to  the  greedy  and  rapacious  pontiff 
whom  they  still  held  for  their  legitimate  Pope.^ 

Belief  in  the  'way  of  fact'  was  indeed  becoming  cold  in 
France  generally.  The  Theological  Faculty  of  the  University 
was  winning  its  way  to  power.  Pierre  dWilly,  the  eloquent 
Rector  of  the  College  of  Navarre,  had  thrice  been  chosen  to 
proceed  on  missions  to  the  Pope.     He  had  appeared  first  on 

^  Valois,  ii.  384. 


156     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

behalf  of  the  University  in  the  matter  of  fees  wrongfully 
levied  by  the  Chancellor ;  then  he  had  contended  against  the 
Dominican  John  of  Montson  for  the  Immaculate  Conception 
of  the  Virgin ;  and  in  1387  he  had  advocated  the  canonisation 
of  Peter  of  Luxemburg.  In  1389  he  was  appointed  Confessor 
to  the  King,  and  from  this  year  onward  he  steadily  made  his 
way  as  court  preacher  and  as  courtier,  scourging  the  offences 
of  the  Church  on  the  one  hand,  and  casting  in  his  political 
lot  with  the  Duke  of  Orleans  on  the  other,  making  full  use  of 
his  position  both  as  Chancellor  of  the  University  and  as  King's 
Almoner.  He  won  the  confidence  of  the  King,  but  the  Dukes 
of  Burgundy  and  Berri  were  against  him.  He  was  backed  up 
by  his  friends  and  pupils,  by  Gilles  des  Champs,  who  was  now 
the  Rector  of  the  College  of  Navarre,  by  Nicolas  de  Clamanges, 
who  was  Rector  of  the  University,  and  above  all  by  Jean 
Gerson,  who  had  accompanied  D'Ailly  on  one  occasion  to 
Avignon.  On  the  Feast  of  Epiphany  1391  Gerson  preached 
a  long  and  eloquent  sermon  before  the  court;  he  called  on  the 
King  to  come  to  the  aid  of  the  Church ;  he  warned  him  that 
Charles  the  Great,  that  Roland  and  other  heroes  of  bygone 
time  would  rather  have  died  a  thousand  deaths  than  have 
suffered  the  present  evil  to  continue ;  he  invoked  the  help  of 
the  royal  dukes  and  the  nobles  then  present  and  listening.^ 

With  such  a  worldly  pontiff  as  Clement  it  was  natural  that 
there  should  arise  in  France  a  disposition  to  hear  the  other 
side;  and  at  this  time  overtures  were  made  from  Rome.  Pope 
Boniface  informed  the  father  of  the  French  Queen  that,  if 
Clement  would  acknowledge  that  Urban  had  been  rightful 
Pope,  he  would  appoint  Clement  to  be  his  Legate  and  Vicar- 
Geiieral  everywhere  save  in  Italy,  England,  and  Portugal.  In 
1392  Boniface  sent  two  Carthusian  monks  to  the  King,  urging 
him  to  work  for  the  union  of  the  Church,  reminding  him  that 
the  Church  had  never  undertaken  any  great  work  apart  from 
France,  nor  France  any  such  apart  from  the  Church.  The  two 
monks  were  seized  at  Avignon  by  the  Duke  of  Berri  and  were 
cast  into  prison,  but  they  were  released  as  soon  as  the  King- 
recovered  his  sanity,  and  were  welcomed  with  acclamation  at 
Paris,  where  public  prayers  were  offered  for  the  termination 

^  Schvab,  126. 


BALDASSARE  COSSA  157 

of  the  Scliism,  Boniface  in  his  next  letter  went  so  far  as  to 
demand  that  Clement  should  be  deposed ;  ^  but  meantime 
public  opinion  had  strikingly  manifested  itself. 

In  January  1394  the  University  of  Paris  plucked  up  courage 
again  to  address  the  King,  urging  him  to  activity  in  the  work 
of  restoring  unity  to  the  Church.  Wonderful  to  relate,  a 
favourable  answer  was  returned  them  by  the  Duke  of  Berri. 
'The  excessive  duration  of  this  execrable  Schism,'  said  he,  'is 
a  shame  to  the  King  and  the  royal  house.  All  the  world  is 
tired  of  the  Schism.  If  you  can  devise  a  remedy  which  the 
Council  can  approve,  we  will  at  once  adopt  it.'  Pierre  d'Ailly 
and  Gilles  des  Champs  had  their  plan  ready .^  The  University 
took  immediate  action.  They  placed  a  large  coffer  in  the 
Cloister  of  the  Mathurins,  and  requested  every  one  who  could 
suggest  any  remedy  for  the  Schism  to  drop  therein  a  written 
memorandum  of  his  proposition.  More  than  ten  thousand 
notes  were  dropped  into  the  coffer ;  they  were  examined  by 
fifty-five  professors,  who  reported  that  three  principal  methods 
had  been  proposed.  These  three  plans  were — (1)  the  way  of 
cession,  or  the  simultaneous  abdication  of  both  Popes  ;  (2)  the 
way  of  compromise,  or  an  arbitration  between  the  rival  Popes ; 
and  (3)  the  way  of  a  council  in  which  the  universal  Church 
should  be  represented  and  its  opinion  upheld.  Now  that  the 
University  of  Paris  had  pronounced  against  the  '  way  of  fact "" 
and  was  in  favour  of  a  different  method  of  ending  the  Schism, 
now  that  the  French  King,  who  three  years  earlier  had  been 
ready  to  carry  fire  and  sword  into  Italy,  was  in  communication 
with  Pope  Boniface,  Clement  the  Seventh  recognised  that  he 
had  lost  ground,  and  determined  to  counteract  his  enemies  if 
possible.  He  invited  D'Ailly  and  Des  Champs  to  Avignon  to 
help  him  in  the  control  of  the  Church ;  but  they  feared  for 
their  lives  and  declined  the  invitation.  He  sent  Cardinal 
Pedro  de  Luna  to  Paris,  where  he  sowed  tares  amons:  the 
wheat  and  won  the  ear  of  the  weak-willed  King.  When  the 
University  next  endeavoured  to  approach  the  King,  their 
protector  the  Duke  of  Burgundy  was  absent  from  Paris,  and 
the  Dukes  of  Berri  and  Orleans,  both  partisans  of  Clement, 
were  at  the  head  of  affairs.  As  soon  as  the  former  Duke 
'  Religieux,  ji.  46,  104.  2  Tschackert,  88. 


158     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

understood  that  the  University  wanted  to  suggest  the  abdica- 
tion of  his  friend  Pope  Clement,  his  anger  flared  out,  and  he 
threatened  to  put  to  death  the  authors  of  such  an  audacious 
proposal  or  to  throw  them  into  the  Seine.^  Even  when  the 
Duke  of  Burgundy  returned  to  Paris  the  University  fared  very 
little  better ;  they  were  allowed  to  state  their  three  proposals 
at  length,  and  to  suggest  a  subtraction  of  obedience  from  the 
Pope,  who  would  not  agree  to  the  method  selected;  but  they 
got  no  further.  On  the  10th  August  1394  they  were  informed 
that  the  King  did  not  intend  to  trouble  himself  further  about 
the  matter,  and  that  they  were  not  to  trouble  themselves 
about  it  either.  The  University  craftily  wrote  to  Clement, 
telling  him  what  they  had  done,  and  begging  him  to  co-operate 
with  their  efforts  to  restore  unity  to  the  Church.  Their  letter 
was  read  publicly ;  when  the  reading  was  halfway  through, 
the  Pope  rose  in  anger  and  cried  out  that  it  was  a  defamatory 
libel  against  the  apostolic  seat,  full  of  poison  and  of  calumny, 
fit  to  be  read  neither  in  public  nor  in  private.  He  shut 
himself  up  for  several  days,  and  was  then  dismayed  to  hear 
that  the  cardinals  had  met  and  were  considering  the  letter. 
Calling  them  to  him,  he  reproached  them  bitterly ;  he  would 
hear  of  no  other  way  of  ending  the  Schism  than  the  forcible 
expulsion  of  his  rival.  The  knowledge  that  any  other  plan 
was  deemed  feasible  reduced  him  to  such  a  state  of  chagrin 
and  weakness  that,  after  a  slight  illness  of  three  days,  he  com- 
plained after  morning  Mass  of  his  heart  failing  him,  called  for 
wine,  was  struck  with  apoplexy,  and  expired  on  the  16th 
September  1394,  in  the  fifty-second  year  of  his  age.-  'And  it 
came  by  hym  as  he  has  alwayes  said  before :  when  any  man 
spake  of  the  peace  and  unyon  of  the  Church,  he  wolde  say 
alwayes,  ho  we  he  wolde  dye  Pope,  and  so  he  dyd.'^ 

Six  days  after  Clement  the  Seventh,  the  butcher  of  Cesena, 
had  expired,  the  news  of  his  death  reached  the  King  of  France. 
He  at  once  saw  that  there  was  a  chance  of  ending  the  Schism, 
and  realised  that  instant  action  was  necessary.  He  forthwith 
assembled  his  privy  council,  added  to  it  some  members  of  the 
great  council,  and  on  the  proposition  of  Simon  de  Cramaud, 
Patriarch  of  Alexandria,  wrote  to  the  cardinals  at  Avignon 

*  Religieux,  ii.  132.  ^  Christophe,  iii.  137.  '  Froissart,  vi.  121. 


BALDASSARE  COSSA  159 

asking  them  to  postpone  the  election  of  a  new  Pope  until 
they  received  an  official  communication  to  be  despatched  as 
soon  as  possible.  In  Germany  also  the  death  of  Pope  Clement 
was  regarded  as  an  opportunity  for  ending  the  Schism.  The 
Archbishops  of  Cologne  and  Mainz  and  the  Count  Palatine  of 
Bavaria  ^  wrote  to  the  French  King,  urging  him  to  have  the 
new  election  deferred,  and  promising  to  use  their  influence  with 
King  Wenzel  to  end  the  Schism.  The  letter  of  Charles  to  the 
cardinals  concluded  with  the  assurance  that  he  would  leave  them 
absolutely  free  in  their  choice  of  the  new  Pontiff.  The  letter 
was  sent  off' the  same  evening  and  it  was  safely  delivered  into  the 
hands  of  the  Cardinal  of  Florence  on  the  morning  of  the  26th. 
The  cardinals  were  then  ready  to  enter  into  conclave. 
They  could  make  a  shrewd  guess  at  the  import  of  the  King''s 
letter,  and  had  no  desire  to  defer  the  election.  If  the 
Schism  were  to  be  ended  by  the  recognition  of  the  Pope  at 
Rome,  then  the  cardinals  of  Clement's  obedience  expected  but 
little  consideration  ;  their  careers  and  prospects  were  hopelessly 
blighted.  At  the  same  time,  they  were  anxious  to  avoid  the 
shame  and  guilt  of  wilfully  and  needlessly  protracting  the 
Schism.  They  therefore  drew  up  a  solemn  engagement  in 
the  form  of  a  schedule  which  each  of  them  was  to  sign  before 
proceeding  to  the  election.  It  was  to  the  effect  that  each  one 
promised  on  the  Gospels  to  work  with  all  his  might  for  the 
union,  to  do  and  to  say  nothing  to  hinder  or  retard  it,  to 
follow  loyally,  if  he  became  Pope,  every  profitable  way  conduc- 
ing to  the  union,  including  the  way  of  cession,  if  the  majority 
of  the  actual  cardinals  judged  this  means  to  be  desirable. 
The  concluding  and  important  words  of  the  Latin  schedule 
ran  as  follows  : — '  Etiam  usque  ad  cessionem  inclusive  per  ipsum 
de  papatu  faciendam,  si  dominis  cardiualihus  .  .  .  vel  inajori 
parti  eoriindem  hoc  pro  bono  ecclesiae  et  tuiionis  praedictae 
videatur  expedire.''  ~  Nothing  was  said  as  to  how  the  opinion 
of  the  cardinals  was  to  be  obtained.  Pedro  de  Luna  raised 
objections  to  the  schedule.  '  He  thinks  he  is  already  elected,' 
said  one.  '  I  do  not  desire  a  burden  beyond  my  strength  to 
bear,'  answered  he,  '  but  to  contradict  such  rumours,  I  will 
take  the  oath.'  He  took  it ;  and  all  the  other  cardinals,  save 
^  Lindner  {//.  and  L.),'i\.  339.  •  Ehrle,  v.  103. 


160     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

three,  subscribed  the  obligation.  Having  thus  safeguarded 
themselves  from  criticism,  the  cardinals  decided  to  postpone 
reading  the  royal  letter  until  they  should  have  issued  from 
conclave.  On  the  28th  September,  at  nine  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  they  came  forth  and  announced  that  they  had  chosen 
Pedro  de  Luna,  the  Cardinal  of  Aragon,  as  Pope ;  he  took  the 
name  of  Benedict  the  Thirteenth.  Perhaps  he  was  influenced 
in  the  choice  of  a  title  by  the  recollection  of  the  Cistercian 
monk,  Benedict  the  Twelfth,  who  had  been  noted  for  his 
freedom  from  nepotism  and  his  hatred  of  simony.  Now  that 
the  two  original  Popes  had  both  died  and  had  been  succeeded, 
Urban  by  Boniface  and  Clement  by  Benedict,  the  Great 
Schism  had  entered  on  a  second  and  more  inveterate  phase. 
At  the  death  of  Clement  the  Seventh  the  alliance  between 
France  and  the  Pope  at  Avignon  came  to  an  end  ;  the  new 
Pope  was  of  a  different  kidney  to  the  old. 

The  first  rung  of  the  ladder  of  fame  was  mounted  by 
Baldassare  Cossa  when  his  fellow-countryman.  Pope  Boniface 
the  Ninth,  sent  him  back  in  1392  to  Bologna  as  Archdeacon.^ 
He  remained  there  four  years.  As  Archdeacon,  Baldassare 
Cossa  occupied  the  same  relation  to  the  University  of  Bologna 
as  did  the  Chancellor  of  the  Cathedral  to  the  University  of 
Paris  ;  no  promotion  to  the  Doctorate  could  take  place  without 
his  consent ;  the  candidates  were  presented  to  him,  he  presided 
over  their  examination,  he  announced  the  decision  of  the 
Doctors  and  conferred  the  licence  which  allowed  them  to  teach 
not  only  in  Bologna  but  throughout  the  world.  The  position 
brought  with  it  both  dignity  and  emoluments.  Although  the 
Archdeacon  was  not  necessarily  an  official  of  the  University, 
but  rather  an  external  representative  of  the  Church's  authority 
over  the  Studium,  still,  from  the  year  1270  onwards,  the 
relations  between  the  Archdeacon  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
Doctors  and  the  University  on  the  other,  had  always  been 
most  amicable ;  and  the  position  and  influence  which  he  thus 
obtained  account  for  the  allegiance,  almost  amounting  to 
subservience,  which  the  University  of  Bologna  afterwards,  and 
especially  at  the  time  of  the  Council  of  Pisa,  evinced  towards 
Baldassare  Cossa. 

'  Ciaconius,  ii.  710,  785. 


BALDASSARE  COSSA  161 

Alike  as  a  student  at  the  University  of  Bologna  and  as  its 
Archdeacon,  Baldassare  Cossa  was  able  to  follow  and  take  a 
keen  interest  in  the  local  politics  and  fortunes  of  the  State ; 
his  subsequent  career  shows  the  deep  and  permanent  impres- 
sion which  they  made  upon  him.  Bologna  was  the  ally  of 
Florence,  and  Florence  was  at  the  head  of  the  opposition  to 
Gian  Galeazzo  Visconti,  Lord,  and  from  1395  Duke,  of  Milan. 
Florence,  moreover,  on  the  29th  September  1396,  entered  into 
alliance  with  the  King  of  France.^  Baldassare  Cossa  was  in 
after  years  the  ally  of  Florence ;  with  her  aid  he  wrested 
Bologna  from  the  Visconti,  and  like  her,  he  too  looked  for  aid 
to  France.  While  he  was  a  student,  and  again  while  he  was 
Archdeacon  at  Bologna,  intermittent  war  between  Milan  and 
Florence  continued,  and  Bologna  was  throughout  the  faithful 
ally  of  Florence.  The  Duke  usually  managed  to  maintain  in 
the  cities  of  his  enemies  a  party  in  his  own  pay  and  interest. 
In  1389  a  conspiracy  was  hatched  in  Bologna  in  his  favour, 
but  it  was  discovered ;  and  in  the  same  year  came  the  Duke''s 
mortal  enemy,  Francesco  of  Carrara,  to  the  city,  and  was  so  well 
received  that  in  1390  Gian  Galeazzo  openly  declared  war 
against  both  Florence  and  Bologna.  It  was  possibly  in  this 
war  that  Baldassare  Cossa  first  took  arms  and  made  his  name 
as  a  soldier.  A  Florentine  speaks  thus  of  him :  '  There  was 
much  worth  in  him ;  for  having  from  his  boyhood  applied 
himself  to  letters,  and  having  worked  so  that  he  became  not 
only  a  celebrated  orator  and  poet,  but  a  good  philosopher 
also,  he  then  turned  his  mind  to  other  matters,  abandoned  his 
studies,  and  made  himself  a  man  at  arms,  and  so  comported 
himself  that  he  was  soon  esteemed  one  of  the  first  soldiers  of 
Italy.  Being  made  a  captain,  on  the  very  first  occasion  he 
came  successfully  out  of  the  trial ;  and  he  was  victorious  in 
more  than  one  war.  But  after  many  expeditions,  not  being 
contented  with  this  life,  he  began  to  ponder  on  Church 
dignities,  and  aspired  to  the  Papacy.'^ 

It  was  after  Baldassare  Cossa  had  been  summoned  to  Rome 

^  Tartini,  ii.  363. 

'^  Abridged  from  Robbia's  Vita  di  Bartolommeo  Valori,  A.S.I.,  iv.  261. 
With  reference  to  this  extract  Creighton  (i.  385)  says  of  Cossa  that  'it  is  clear 
that  Florence  did  not  accept  the  opinion  of  Constance,  and  I  incline  to  think 
that  the  opinion  of  Florence  was  less  prejudiced.' 


162     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

that  the  Milanese  were  so  severely  defeated  at  Governolo  by 
the  troops  of  Florence  under  Carlo  Malatesta  and  those  of 
Bologna  under  Giovanni  di  Barbiano,^  that  men  said  that  the 
Florentine  general  might  have  brought  Gian  Galeazzo  to  his 
knees  had  he  marched  straight  on  Milan  from  Mantua.^  Before 
that  day,  it  is  clear  that  Baldassare  Cossa  won  much  distinc- 
tion on  the  field  of  battle,  and  that  his  military  virtue  and 
valour  were  appreciated  by  his  contemporaries.  The  Floren- 
tines more  than  others  were  conscious  of  his  worth,  for  they 
entreated  Pope  Boniface  subsequently  to  send  him  as  Papal 
Leo-ate  to  Bologna :  how  should  they  have  been  so  keenly  and 
deeply  impressed  with  his  prowess  as  a  soldier  and  his  genius 
as  a  general  had  these  qualities  not  been  exemplified  in  the 
war  which  so  nearly  concerned  them  ?  Be  the  truth  as  it 
may,  it  is  clear  that  Cossa  was  early  known  as  a  strenuous 
man  of  action;  as  Platina,  the  librarian  of  Pope  Sixtus 
the  Fourth,  says  of  him,  '  Virfidt  hello  et  armis  qiiam  religioni 
aptior.'' 

In  1396  Pope  Boniface  the  Ninth  summoned  Baldassare 
Cossa  to  Rome  to  be  his  private  chamberlain.^  The  seven 
years  were  just  closing  during  which  Pope  Boniface  the  Ninth, 
for  fear  of  the  pious  cardinals  left  him  by  his  predecessor,  had 
been  ashamed  openly  to  practise  simony.*  Seven  of  these  had 
now  died,  and  since  his  first  year  Boniface  had  made  no 
additions  to  the  sacred  college.  He  was  in  no  fear  of  a 
general  council,  for  in  1391  he  had  in  his  encyclical  of  the  1st 
March  rejected  this  scheme  as  sinful.^  His  rival  was  in  diffi- 
culty in  France.  Boniface  had  a  free  hand.  He  now  embarked 
on  that  course  of  shameless  and  unprincipled  simony  which 
amassed  money  for  the  Church,  but  which  made  the  Pope's 
name  a  byword  and  a  loathing  among  the  nations.  Into  this, 
the  very  worst  school  of  Church  government,  Baldassare  Cossa, 
as  private  chamberlain,  was  initiated,  and  he,  a  thorough  man 
of  the  world,  learned  his  lesson.  The  Pope  would  do  nothing 
without  being  paid  for  it ;  he  held  that  a  little  ready  cash  was 
better  than  a  big  promise,  or,  as  he  phrased  it,  '  a  sprat  in  the 
hand  was  better  than  a  dolphin  in  the  sea.'  ^ 

1  Tartini,  ii.  381.  "  Hoefler,  107.  =>  Mur.  iii.  854. 

*  £>e  Schismate,  130.  ^  Hefele,  vi,  814.  «  De  Schismaie^  138. 


BALDASSARE  COSSA  163 

There  were  three  classes  of  chamberlains  surrounding  the 
Pope.  The  first  class  were  the  honorary  chamberlains,  who 
neither  slept  in  the  palace  nor  performed  any  special  service. 
The  second  were  the  ordinary  chamberlains,  who  did  not  sleep 
in  the  palace,  but  who  attended  the  Pope  at  his  retirement 
and  his  uprising,  who  read  prayers  with  him  and  assisted  him 
in  the  Mass  and  Church  functions,  and  who  received  petitions 
for  him  and  drafted  replies.  The  third  class,  who  were  two 
or  four  in  number,  were  the  private  chamberlains,  to  whom 
were  intrusted  the  keeping  of  the  private  records,  the  custody 
of  the  treasure,  the  superintendence  of  the  wardrobe  and  the 
medicine  chest.  These  lived  in  the  palace  and  were  naturally 
more  influential  with  the  pontiff  than  were  the  others.^  In  his 
new  position  the  young  ecclesiastic  soon  became  both  useful  and 
profitable  to  the  Pope,  who,  like  Cossa  himself,  was  a  shrewd 
man  of  the  world  and  an  able  ruler  of  the  Church. 

The  sale  of  indulgences  was  then  in  full  vogue.  In  the  year 
1300  Boniface  the  Eighth  had  granted  full  remission  of  sin 
(plenissimam  omnium  suorum  concedimus  veniam  peccutorum,  so 
ran  the  Bull)  to  every  penitent  man  who  had  made  his  confes- 
sion and  who  visited  the  churches  of  Saint  Peter  and  Saint  Paul 
in  Rome.  The  number  of  pilgrims  who  flocked  to  the  Eternal 
City  was  so  enormous,  and  their  offerings  so  profitable,  that 
the  period  for  a  Jubilee  was  reduced  from  a  hundred  to  fifty 
years  by  Clement  the  Sixth  in  1350 ;  and  the  period  was  still 
further  reduced  to  thirty-three  years,  the  length  of  the  life  of 
Christ,  by  Urban  the  Sixth,  who  appointed  1390  to  be  a  year 
of  Jubilee.  Urban  died,  and  Boniface,  his  successor,  reaped 
the  fruits  of  the  Jubilee,  and  Pope  Boniface  resolved  to  extend 
these  privileges  in  the  year  following  to  other  penitents  also. 
Many  had  been  deterred  from  the  journey  by  the  pestilence 
which  raged  in  Rome,  others  by  the  dangers  of  the  road. 
Bands  of  armed  men  lurked  about  the  roads  ready  to  rob  the 
male  pilgrims,  and  to  violate  the  women  and  maidens.^  Hence 
the  receipts  were  not  so  great  as  they  might  have  been.  '  If 
they  will  not  come  to  us  for  grace,  we  will  take  it  to  them  for 
payment,'  said  the  avaricious  Pope ;  and  he  ordained  that 
those  who  had  been  unable  to  travel  to  Rome,  but  who  made 
*  Schwab,  i8i,  '  Dc  Schismaie,  170. 


164     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

pilgrimages  to  certain  shrines  in  Germany,  should  be  admitted 
to  the  same  indulgences  as  those  who  had  gone  to  the  Eternal 
City,  provided  that  they  paid  into  his  coffers  the  expense 
which  the  longer  journey  would  have  entailed.  The  scheme 
met  with  universal  approbation  in  Germany,  and  Pope  Boni- 
face shared  the  proceeds  of  this  pious  economy  with  King 
Wenzel  and  the  Lords  of  Bavaria  and  Meissen,  But  a  number 
of  unaccredited  agents  sprang  up,  men  like  Chaucer's  Pardoner 
with  his  '  pigges-bones  ■■  and  his  '  pilwe-beer,'  who  practised 
frauds  on  the  credulity  of  the  ignorant  rustic  and  burgher,  and 
who  rendered  no  account  of  their  gains  to  any  man.  It  was 
necessary  to  put  some  restraint  on  these  impostors,  some  of 
whom  were  caught  and  laid  by  the  heels,^  and  this  work  would 
naturally  fall  to  the  private  chamberlain :  it  was  probably 
Baldassare  Cossa  who  organised  the  official  machinery,  thereby 
putting  an  end  in  some  degree  to  much  plunder  and  scandal, 
and  at  the  same  time  securing  greatly  increased  gains  for  the 
papal  treasury. 

As  the  Pope's  private  chamberlain  Baldassare  Cossa  also 
kept  a  careful  eye  on  the  bishops  scattered  through  Christen- 
dom, warning  them  when  they  were  likely  to  be  transferred 
and  a  crop  of  first-fruits  was  to  be  expected,  and  also  inter- 
vening on  their  behalf  with  the  Pope  to  prevent  changes  of 
dioceses  which  the  incumbents  deprecated.  For  these  services 
he  naturally  received  gratification ;  and  he  has  been  accused 
by  his  inveterate  enemy  ^  of  uttering  the  warning  and  pocket- 
ing the  gratification  when  there  was  no  other  cause  for  appre- 
hension save  in  his  own  imagination.  It  is  true  that  in  later 
life  he  was  sufficiently  wealthy ;  but  large  fortunes  were 
habitually  made  in  the  Curia  in  those  days,  and  what  the 
Italians  earned  they  saved.  The  higher  orders  among  the 
German  clergy  had  the  reputation  for  liberality  and  for 
keeping  open  house,  whereas  the  Italians  from  the  cardinals 
downward  were  known  to  be  parsimonious,  penurious,  and 
thrifty.  Baldassare  Cossa  personally  spent  his  money  freely 
when  occasion  demanded,  and  could  at  no  time  be  justly 
accused  of  avarice. 

Among  the  most  important  visitors  to  the  court  of  Pope 
^  De  Schismate,  120.  ^  Hardt,  ii.  341. 


BALDASSARE  COSSA  165 

Boniface  the  Ninth,  soon  after  the  arrival  of  Baldassare  Cossa, 
was  John  of  Nassau,  the  great-grandson  of  the  Emperor  Adolf 
of  Nassau.  On  the  19th  October  1396  Conrad,  Archbishop 
of  Mainz,  had  died;  and  John  of  Nassau  was  a  candidate  for 
the  post  which  his  elder  brother  Adolf,  the  sturdy  arch- 
bishop who  could  '  bite  like  a  wolf,"  had  held  until  his  death 
in  1390.  King  Wenzel,  however,  favoured  the  claims  of 
JofFrid  of  Leiningen,  whom  he  represented  as  able  to  do  much 
toward  ending  the  Schism  ;  he  was  very  urgent  that  his 
nominee  should  meet  with  the  papal  support.  Archbishop 
Frederic  of  Cologne  also  favoured  the  claims  of  his  nephew 
Joffrid.  On  the  other  side  was  Rupert,  surnanied  the  Clem, 
the  future  king  ;  and  also  the  Florentines.  The  chapter  made 
over  the  responsibility  of  the  election  to  a  committee  of  five, 
who  chose  JofFrid.  There  was,  however,  more  than  a  suspicion 
of  simony ;  fifty  or  sixty  thousand  golden  gulden  are  said  to 
have  changed  hands.  John  of  Nassau  understood  that  money 
to  be  expended  could  be  more  profitably  employed  at  the 
fountain-head ;  simony  was  permissible  to  the  Pope  if  to  no 
one  else,  for  all  the  wealth  of  the  Church  was  his,  and  he  only 
received  his  own ;  John  took  over  the  debt  of  his  two  prede- 
cessors, and  paid  seventy  thousand  ^  golden  gulden  to  the  Pope 
before  he  left  Rome.  He  was  appointed  Archbishop  of  Mainz, 
and  so  became  senior  Elector  of  the  Empire,  an  electorship  in 
which  he  played  a  most  important  part  in  the  history  of 
Germany.  While  at  Rome  he  made  the  acquaintance  of 
Baldassare  Cossa,  and  the  two  men  remained  close  friends  and 
partisans  ever  after.  There  was  much  that  was  congenial  in 
their  dispositions ;  both  were  men  of  the  world,  both  were 
soldiers  rather  than  churchmen,  both  were  able  and  ambitious. 
While  Baldassare  was  at  the  court  of  Boniface  at  Rome, 
there  came  the  news  one  day  that  two  of  his  brothers,  who 
had  continued  their  old  piratical  life,  had  been  captured  by 
the  men  of  King  Ladislas  and  had  been  condemned  to  death 
and  to  confiscation  of  all  their  goods.  Cossa,  with  much 
difficulty,  got  the  Pope  to  intervene,  and  Ladislas  consented 
to  spare  the  lives  of  the  two  pirates,  but  he  put  them  in 
prison  and  kept  them  there :  this  was  the  first  black  score  in 
'  Lenfant,  i.  302. 


166    IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

the  mutual  account  of  Baldassare  Cossa  and  King  Ladislas  of 
Naples. 

In  Naples  the  cause  of  the  boy  Ladislas  had  meantime  been 
taken  up  by  his  mother  Marguerite,  who  had,  with  a  woman's 
presentiment,  bitterly  opposed  her  husband's  departure  for 
Hungary,  and  who  now  fought  manfully  for  her  son.  The 
rebels  of  the  Anjou  party,  to  which  the  family  of  Baldassare 
Cossa  belonged,  besieged  the  Queen  in  her  capital ;  the 
Neapolitans  threw  off  her  yoke  and  proclaimed  a  council ; 
Marguerite,  with  her  son  and  daughter,  shut  herself  up  in 
Gaeta.  On  the  5th  September  she  married  young  Ladislas 
to  Constance  of  Sicily  for  the  sake  of  her  dowry.  In  the 
next  year  Pope  Boniface  recognised  Ladislas  as  a  '  true  son 
of  the  Church,'  and  sent  a  cardinal  legate  to  Gaeta  to  crown 
him  King;  but  at  the  same  time  Louis  of  Anjou  appeared, 
took  possession  of  Naples,  and  received  from  many  of  the 
barons  the  oath  of  fidelity.  War  began.  Marguerite  with 
tears  and  entreaty  recommended  her  son's  cause  to  the  faith- 
ful adherents  who  remained  to  her,  and  a  long  period  of  storm 
and  stress  ensued.  Young  Ladislas  grew  up  in  the  midst  of 
civil  war,  in  an  atmosphere  of  intrigue  and  dissimulation ;  his 
trouble  and  humiliation  taught  him  to  be  a  consummate  de- 
ceiver and  a  ferocious  tyrant.^  Shrewd  and  clever,  he  was  a 
stranger  to  probity  and  honour.  As  soon  as  his  father-in-law 
lost  his  wealth  and  power,  Ladislas  divorced  his  wife,  and 
married  Marie  de  Lusignan,  daughter  of  the  King  of  Cyprus. 
But  with  all  his  faults  he  was  not  so  alien  to  the  people 
as  was  Louis  of  Anjou  ;  Ladislas  was  indeed  popular  with  Nea- 
politans ;  ^  his  talent  and  valour  won  him  partisans ;  and  in 
1399  the  local  barons  of  Orsini  and  San  Severini  passed  under 
his  standard.  He  was  a  man  full  of  ambitious  projects,  but 
lacking  in  perseverance ;  he  pursued  his  plans  for  a  time,  and 
then  cast  them  aside.  He  was  unboundedly  sensual ;  he  would 
quit  the  field  of  battle  to  indulge  his  brutish  appetite.  But, 
spite  of  all,  he  gradually  won  his  way  to  power.  Louis  of 
Anjou,  who  was  besieged  at  Tarento,  was  obliged  to  capitu- 
late. The  like  fate  befell  his  brother  Charles,  who  was 
besieged  in  the  Castello  dell'  Ovo,  the  '  Castel  of  the  sorcerer 
'  Raumer,  189.  '  Mur.  xix.  921. 


BALDASSARE  COSSA  167 

Vergil/  known  aforetime  as  the  Lucullanum,  where  the  body  of 
Severinus  was  laid,  '  that  remarkable  island  or  peninsula  which 
juts  out  from  the  shore  of  modern  Naples  between  the  Chiaja 
and  the  Military  Harbour."'^  Both  brothers  were  compelled 
to  resign  their  fortresses  to  the  troops  of  Ladislas  and  to 
retire  to  Provence.  Thus  at  the  close  of  the  century  Ladislas 
was  undisputed  King  of  Naples,  although  the  claims  of  Louis, 
Duke  of  Anjou,  were  not  resigned  but  were  merely  in  abey- 
ance. In  person  Ladislas  was  a  tall,  straight,  well-built  man, 
solemn  of  aspect  and  not  very  beautiful  to  look  upon  ;  with 
light  eyes  and  long  red  hair,  arched  eyebrows  and  a  hooked 
nose,  his  pale  face  flushed  at  times  with  anger  or  greed  ;  in 
character  he  was  faithless,  cruel,  and  unchaste ;  he  was  liberal 
to  his  troops ;  he  dressed  like  a  sloven,  ate  ravenously,  and 
drank  copiously  of  strong,  undiluted  wine  ;  he  stammered  some- 
what in  his  speech.^  He  meant  to  be  King  of  Rome  ;  later  on 
he  aspired  to  the  crown  of  all  Italy,  and  dreamed  of  becoming 
Emperor  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire. 

While  he  was  private  chamberlain  at  the  court  of  Boniface 
the  Ninth,  the  future  Pope  John  the  Twenty-third  met  the 
man  who  has  done  more  than  any  other  to  blacken  his  name 
with  posterity.^  Belonging  to  the  town  of  Nieheim,  in  the 
diocese  of  Paderborn,  born  somewhere  between  1338  and  1348, 
Dietrich  of  Niem  had  wandered  to  Naples  and  to  Sicily  before 
he  came  to  Avignon,  where  about  the  year  1370  he  obtained 
employment  in  the  Curia  as  an  auditor's  clerk  or  notary. 
Here  he  met  the  future  Pope  Urban,  who,  after  they  had  made 
the  perilous  voyage  to  Rome  together  on  the  return  of  Gregory 
the  Eleventh,  became  his  fast  friend,  and  who  was  able  in  1378 
to  promote  him  to  the  post  of  Abbreviator  and  Scriptor.  The 
two  offices  were  often  held  together.  The  Abbreviatores,  who 
at  this  time  were  more  than  a  hundred  in  number,  were  the 
clerks  under  the  Vice-Chancellor  of  the  Curia,  who  prepared 
the  minutes,  while  the  Scriptores  made  the  fair  copies  of 
papal  Bulls  and  briefs.  The  emoluments  were  large,  and  the 
Scriptores  had  the  picking  of  vacant  benefices,  of  which  they 
were  allowed  to  hold  four  apiece.     Dietrich,  however,  had  his 

^  Hodgkin,  iii.  191.  ^  Mazella,  Z«  Vite  dei  Re  di  Napoli,  194. 

'  Erler,  340. 


168     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

finger    in    no    less    than    eleven,^    although    he    was    obliged 
under  the  rules  to  vacate  them  and   his  office  in   the  Curia 
while  he  held  the  bishopric  of  Verden  (1395-1400).      As  a 
bishop   Dietrich  was  an  utter  failure,  and  he  spent  the  last 
two  years,  before  he  was  removed  by  the  Pope  for  his  incom- 
petency, at   the    court  of   Rome,   pushing  his  claims  there. 
Although  under  Pope  Innocent  the   Seventh   Dietrich  again 
obtained  an  appointment  as  Abbreviator,  he  thereafter  re- 
ceived no  important  preferment,  and  was  a  soured  and  dis- 
appointed man.     When,  in  describing  his  own  personal  part 
in  a  quarrel  between  Urban  the  Sixth  and  his  cardinals,  he 
found  it  impossible  to  be  fair  and  to  tell  the  whole  truth,^ 
when   he    paints  the  characters  of  Boniface   the   Ninth   and 
Gregory  the  Twelfth   in   the   darkest  colours,  concealing  all 
their  virtues  and  magnifying  their  faults,  it  is  little  wonder 
that    his   picture    of   Baldassare    Cossa    is  disfigured   by  the 
bitterest  party  spirit.     It  must  have  been  gall  and  wormwood 
to  him,  while  vainly  endeavouring  to  promote  his  own  interest 
and  while  he  was  himself  passed  over  in  the  papal  Curia,^  to 
see  the  brilliant  young  Neapolitan,  twenty  or  thirty  years  his 
junior,  promoted  to  a  post  of  confidence  and  power;  and  in 
1415,  when  Pope  John  had  fallen  on  evil  times,  when  every 
one  was  ready  to  believe  anything,  whether  true  or  false,  suffi- 
ciently bad  about  him,  Dietrich  von  Niem  had  his  revenge. 
In  the  midst  of  his  own  disappointment  and  failure  it  soothed 
him  to  describe  the  events  of  a  troublous  time  in  the  most 
lurid  colours,  blackening  all  the  shadows  and  exaggerating  all 
the  iniquities.     He  had  a  bad  word  for  every  one,  but  he  was  the 
special  enemy  of  Cossa.^     He  adopted  all  the  scandals  told  by 
Johannes  de  Thomariis  without  investigation,  and  entered  them 
all  to  the  count  of  Baldassare  Cossa,  and  this  although  he  had 
five  years  earlier  presented  to  him  a  tractate,  De  bono  Romani 
Pontificis  regimine^  in    which    he    expressed   his   respect   and 
gratitude.^      He  has  blackened   the  character  of  Baldassare 
Cossa  so  outrageously  and  falsely  that  his  malice  has  defeated 
his   own   ends,  and   the   word  of  Dietrich  von  Niem  against 
John   the  Twenty-third  is  not  now  believed  where  it  is  not 

1  Erler,  76.  ^  Ibid.  76-7.  =*  Hunger,  14. 

*  Ciaconius,  ii.  791.  '  Hunger,  12  ;  Erler,  341. 


BALDASSARE  COSSA  169 

corroborated  by  other  evidence,  German  scholars  of  the 
present  day,  witii  the  exception  of  Blumenthal,^  scout  the  un- 
supported assertions  of  Dietrich  von  Niem. 

Among  other  sins,  Niem  accused  Baldassare  Cossa  of  simony 
and  of  gross  unchastity.  Simony  is  a  very  wide  term  ;  and  what 
to  an  Observantine  PVanciscan  would  appear  simony  was  to  the 
bishops,  cardinals,  and  popes  of  mediaeval  times  matter  of  daily 
usage.  Pope  John  the  Twenty-tiiird  did  not  introduce  the 
system,  nor  did  he  extend  it ;  he  found  it  in  practice  and  utilised 
it  for  the  needs  of  the  Curia.  Every  one  admitted  that  simony 
existed  in  the  Church,  and  that  it  was  rampant  at  Rome ;  and 
every  truly  religious  man  desired  a  reformation  in  this  respect. 
As  regards  the  charge  of  sensual  immorality,  it  must  be  re- 
membered that  chastity  was  not  then  a  virtue  greatly  in 
vogue,  that  the  moral  feeling  in  Italy  was  lower  than  in  other 
countries,  and  that  most  of  the  mighty  ones  of  the  earth 
were  monsters  of  immorality.  That  there  was  any  ground 
for  such  a  scandal  as  that  recounted  by  the  atrabilious,  vin- 
dictive Teuton  ^  is  so  improbable,  that  even  Gregorovius 
laughs  at  it,^  and  we  have  only  the  unsupported  word  of 
Niem  himself  for  its  existence,  and  he  mentions  it  merely  as 
rumour.  He  says :  '  Et  aliquando  etiam  publ'ice  dicehatur 
Bononia,  cmno  primo  Pontificatus  dicti  Balthasaris  tunc  Papae, 
postquam  Bononienses  sibi  rebellarunt,  quod  ipse  ducentas 
maritatas,  viduas  Sf  virgines,  ac  etiam  quavx  plures  moniales, 
illic  corruperat,  ejtis  ibidem  dominio  perdurante.''  ^  The 
Bolognese  were  not  men  to  put  up  with  treatment  of  this 
kind ;  but  seeing  that  there  are  contemporary  histories  of 
Bologna,  and  not  one  of  them  knows  aught  of  any  such 
scandal,  the  charge  may  be  at  once  dismissed  as  an  unfounded 
calumny.  One  of  Cossa's  best  friends,  and  one  of  his  greatest 
enemies,  bear  alike  witness,  though  indirect,  to  the  compara- 
tive purity  of  his  life.  Carlo  Malatesta,  an  upright  and 
honourable  man,  was  a  friend  of  Baldassare  Cossa ;  he  re- 
spected him,  and  even  when  in  later  years  at  Constance  he 
bore  witness  against  him,  he  never  said  anything  tending  to 
accuse  him  of  sensuality.     Pope  Gregory  the  Twelfth,  on  the 

^  Brieger,  xxi.  488  et  seq.         "  Salembier,  Le  grand  Schisme  <£  Occident,  276. 
^  Gregor.  vi.  614.  ^  Hardt,  ii.  339. 


170     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

other  hand,  was  one  of  Cossa's  worst  and  most  inveterate 
enemies ;  he  fulminated  a  Bull  against  him,  in  which  he 
enumerated  every  charge  known  to  him  against  Cossa,  but 
he  also  never  accused  him  of  immorality.  The  evidence  of 
these  two  men  far  outweighs  that  of  Niem.  Furthermore,  all 
the  Popes  for  more  than  a  century  back,  with  the  single 
exception  of  Clement  the  Sixth,  had  been  men  of  clean  lives; 
and  it  is  in  the  highest  degree  improbable  that  Cossa  would 
ever  have  worn  the  triple  crown  had  he  been  the  prodigy  of 
sensuality  described  by  Dietrich  von  Niem. 

The  character  of  the  future  Pope  was  judged  differently 
and  far  more  accurately  by  others  of  that  time  and  of  the  age 
succeeding.  The  Rel'igieuoo  de  Saint  Denys  describes  him  as 
'  vinim  titigue  nobilem  et  expertitm  in  agendis.''  ^  Platina 
says  that  Baldassare  Cossa  '  was  a  man  to  oppose  usurpers  or 
such  as  encroached  upon  the  church-revenues.  Yet  there 
was  more  of  rusticity,  boldness,  and  worldliness  in  him  than 
his  profession  required.  He  led  a  military  life,  and  his 
manners  were  soldier-like,  and  he  took  the  liberty  of  doing 
many  things  not  fit  to  be  named.'-  The  best-known  verdict 
on  his  character  and  the  most  truthful  is  that  given  by  a 
man  who  knew  him  well,  Leonardo  of  Arezzo,  who  styled  him 
'  vir  in  temporalihus  quidem  magnus  in  spiritualibus  nullus 
omnino  atque  ineptus.''^  An  eminently  sane  modern  historian 
says  of  him  that  he  was  '  not  indeed  the  moral  monster  his 
enemies  afterwards  endeavoured  to  represent  him,  but  he  was 
utterly  worldly-minded  and  completely  engrossed  by  his 
temporal  interests,  an  astute  politician  and  courtier,  not 
scrupulously  conscientious,  and  more  of  a  soldier  than  a 
churchman.'*  Pastor  quotes  Hergenroether,  Reumont,  and 
Hefele  in  his  support  of  this  view ;  Finke  and  others  might 
be  added  to  the  list.  When  he  was  at  Bologna,  Baldassare 
Cossa  was  an  orator,  poet,  and  philosopher;  when  he  took  up 
the  trade  of  war,  he  proved  himself  a  man  of  intelligence, 
courage,  and  energy ;  and  it  was  undoubtedly  his  virtue  as  a 
man  of  war,  as  a  man  of  resource  and  action,  that  marked  him 
out  for  promotion  by  Pope  Boniface  the  Ninth. 

^  Religieux,  iv.  324.  ^  Platina,  342. 

'  Mur.  xix.  927.  *  Pastor,  i.  91. 


THE  WAY  OF  CESSION  171 


CHAPTER   V 

THE    WAY    OF    CESSION 

'  Heresies  and  Schisms,"'  says  Francis  Bacon,  '  are  of  all  others 
the  greatest  scandals :  yea,  more  than  corruption  of  manners.' 
Such  was  also  the  belief  of  the  average  Christian  man  at  the 
end  of  the  fourteenth  century.  States  and  institutions  might 
regard  the  Schism  merely  as  it  affected  their  own  private 
interest;  but  the  universal  consensus  of  popular  opinion  ran 
that  it  was  necessary  in  some  way  to  put  an  end  to  the 
accursed  Schism.  The  French  court  and  the  University  of 
Paris  alike  rejoiced  at  the  news  of  the  election  of  Benedict 
the  Thirteenth;  they  believed  that  in  matters  of  Church 
government  and  taxation  he  would  be  as  complaisant  as 
Clement  the  Seventh,  and  that  he  would  be  willing  to  end 
the  disruption  in  the  Church  by  abdication  if  required. 
There  were  at  that  time  in  matters  ecclesiastical  three 
distinct  parties  in  France :  ^  there  was  the  Court,  which 
regarded  the  Church  as  an  institution  which,  with  the 
sanction  of  the  Pope,  provided  revenue  for  the  King''s  expenses 
and  benefices  for  the  King's  servants ;  there  was  the  Galilean 
Church,  which  desired  to  pay  as  little  as  possible  either  to 
King  or  Pope  in  the  way  of  taxation,  and  to  pay  nothing  at 
all  except  with  its  own  consent ;  which  desired  further  that  all 
benefices  when  vacant  should  be  filled  by  the  ordinaries.  In 
the  third  place  there  was  the  University  of  Paris,  the 
theological  school  par  excellence  of  Christendom,  the  guardian 
of  orthodoxy,  which  saw  the  need  for  internal  reform  in  the 
Church,  although  rather  in  matters  financial  than  moral. 
But  the  University  depended  on  the  Pope  to  provide  benefices 
for  its  Masters.  The  ordinaries,  lay  and  clerical,  had  too 
^  Reinke,  7  g(  seq. 


172     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

many  dependants  and  followers  to  allow  of  their  presenting 
a  man  to  a  benefice  simply  because  he  was  the  fittest  man  for 
the  work  ;  fitness,  indeed,  never  entered  their  thoughts.  The 
system  of  promotion  was  the  same  to  the  higher  as  to  the 
lower  posts  in  Holy  Church.  '  The  idea  of  making  a  man  a 
bishop  or  archdeacon  on  account  of  his  zeal,  his  energy,  his 
success  in  the  humble  round  of  parochial  duty,  is  one  which 
would  hardly  have  occurred  to  sensible  men  in  mediaeval 
times "';  nor  was  the  case  different  in  the  presentation  to 
benefices.  Hence  it  came  about  that  the  most  corrupt  Popes 
were  better  patrons  of  learning  than  were  the  Galilean  bishops. 
The  fact  that  'the  carriere  ouverte  aux  talens  should  have 
been  secured  by  the  system  of  Provisions  is  a  striking  example 
of  the  indirect  utilities  which  were  often  bound  up  with  the 
most  indefensible  and  most  corruptly  intended  of  papal 
usurpations.'  ^  Such  were  the  three  parties  in  Church  politics 
in  France.  Pope  Benedict,  on  the  other  hand,  by  no  means 
looked  on  himself  as  Secretary  of  State  in  the  ecclesiastical 
department  to  the  King  of  France ;  he  took  a  lofty  and  a 
fitting  view  of  his  high  position ;  he  regarded  himself  as 
representing  and  entrusted  with  the  interest  of  the  Church 
Universal ;  and  as  this  interest  did  not  correspond  in  his  view 
with  that  of  any  of  the  three  parties  named,  it  followed  that 
if  he  were  not  willing  to  give  way  there  must  needs  be 
friction. 

Pope  Benedict  the  Thirteenth  is  one  of  the  most  mysterious 
and  fascinating  figures  of  the  period  with  which  we  are 
dealing.  He  was  sixty-six  years  of  age  when  elected  ;  a  short, 
neat,  handsome  little  man,  sprung  from  a  noble  family  of 
Aragon ;  Roderigo  de  Luna  was  his  brother,  the  Cardinal  of 
Pampeluna  was  a  near  relative.  He  had  been  Professor  of 
Canon  Law  in  the  University  of  MontpelHer ;  he  had  all  the 
logical  instinct  of  a  keen  chancery  lawyer ;  he  looked  to  the 
letter  of  the  law,  and  was  careful  of  nice  verbal  distinctions. 
He  was  an  eloquent  and  successful  diplomatist ;  he  had  won 
the  obedience  of  Castile  for  his  predecessor  in  1380,  that  of 
Aragon  in  1387,  that  of  Navarre  in  1390;  he  had  been 
deputed  to  Portugal ;  he  had  pleaded  for  Clement  in  Paris  in 
1  Rashdall,  i.  534. 


Pope  Benedict  the  Thirteenth. 


^ 


THE  WAY  OF  CESSION  173 

1394 ;  twice  liad  he  bearded  the  dreaded  Duke  of  Lancaster. 
He  had  originally  done  much  to  secure  the  election  of  Pope 
Urban  the  Sixth  ;  he  had  been  reluctant  to  break  with  him  ; 
he  had  gone  to  Agnani  with  the  intention  of  serving  him, 
but  the  arguments  of  the  French  cardinals,  coupled  with  the 
ingratitude  and  misconduct  of  Urban,  had  decided  him,  and 
he  became  the  most  fervent  supporter  of  Clement  the  Seventh.^ 
He  was  a  man  of  blameless  moral  life ;  Nicolas  de  Clamanges 
speaks  of  his  sanctity  and  love  of  contemplation ;  Froissart 
says  that  he  was  'an  holy  manne  and  of  good  lyfe/^  He 
possessed  a  powerful  magnetic  influence  which  worked  on 
those  of  vivid  imagination  and  chivalrous  devotion ;  hence  he 
sained  for  himself  the  affection  of  characters  so  diverse  in 
other  respects  as  Catharine  of  Siena  and  Louis  of  Orleans, 
and  of  reforming  churchmen  such  as  Pierre  d'Ailly  and 
Nicolas  de  Clamanges :  these  all  believed  in  him  and  trusted 
him.  Had  his  lot  been  cast  in  quieter  times,  he  would  have 
been  esteemed  for  his  Church  governance,  for  he  hated  simony 
and  corruption ;  he  was  fully  conscious  of  his  own  good 
intentions,  and  was  possessed  of  inflexible  energy  in  attempt- 
ing to  carry  out  his  designs.  He  had  his  own  pet  scheme  for 
ending  the  Schism,  and  in  judging  him  it  is  necessary  to 
remember  that  he  was  never  allowed  an  opportunity  of  putting 
it  into  practice.  He  was  a  man  of  great  personal  dignity,  a 
past  master  in  the  arts  of  diplomacy  and  persuasion,  but  he  had 
the  defects  of  his  virtues.  His  logic  was  apt  to  degenerate  into 
fine-drawn  craft,  his  pride  and  firmness  into  perverse  obstinacy. 
Pope  Benedict  was  too  shrewd  to  break  off  at  once  without 
further  warning  the  policy  of  his  predecessor ;  he  allowed  the 
existing  fiscal  arrangements  to  continue  for  the  time ;  he 
sent  ambassadors  to  speak  comfortably  to  the  royal  princes. 
But  it  was  inevitable  that  a  struggle  should  come.  Benedict 
represented  the  old  spirit  of  the  Church  universal,  France 
represented  the  modern  spirit  of  the  national  or  Gallican 
Church ;  the  French  court  represented  that  of  a  Church 
prostituted  to  the  uses  of  the  State.  All  the  leading  church- 
men of  France  were  Gallicans.  The  Gallican  Church  had 
taken  root  in  the  time  of  Saint  Louis  and  Philip  the  Fair ; 

I  Gardner,  272.  -  Froissart,  vi.  121. 


174    IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

it  had  begun  to  flourish  and  grow  strong  in  the  time  of  the 
captivity  at  Avignon  ;  it  was  now  a  living,  though  not  a 
recognised,  institution,  protected  more  especially  by  the  Duke 
of  Burgundy.^  The  threat  of  Urban  the  Sixth  to  swamp  the 
French  cardinals  with  Italians,  and  so  to  alter  or  reform  the 
sacred  college,  liad  doubtless  not  been  without  influence  on 
Charles  the  Fifth  when  he  embraced  the  cause  of  the  rival 
Pope.  Clement  the  Seventh,  in  his  government  of  the  French 
Church,  had  been  more  subservient  to  the  French  court  than 
were  any  of  the  Popes  during  the  Captivity.  He  had  regularly 
exploited  the  Church  for  the  benefit  of  himself,  of  his  cardinals, 
and  of  the  court.  In  his  collation  to  bishoprics  he  regarded 
only  the  fact  whether  the  incumbent  was,  or  was  not,  likely 
to  be  pleasing  to  the  French  King ;  if  lie  were  a  persona  grata 
at  court,  then  any  disqualification  of  age  or  capacity  or  worth 
was  overlooked.  The  Pope  even  went  so  far  as  to  place 
several  bishoprics  and  750  benefices  at  the  King's  absolute 
disposal.  The  Doctors  of  the  University  of  Paris  he  naturally 
held  in  the  utmost  contempt ;  theologians,  he  said,  were 
merely  dreamers.  He  did  his  best  to  ruin  the  Church 
of  France.^  The  policy  of  Clement  was  hateful  to  Pope 
Benedict,  who  had  the  interest  of  the  Church  at  heart ;  and 
this  explains  his  conflict  with  the  French  court;  it  explains 
also  his  conflict  with  his  own  cardinals,  most  of  whom 
were  Frenchmen  and  steeped  in  simony.  The  very  virtues  of 
the  new  Pope  were  fatal  to  smooth  working  between  him  and 
the  court  or  the  college. 

The  royal  princes  soon  discovered  that  Benedict  meant  to  be 
absolute  ruler  of  the  Church  within  his  obedience.  Although  he 
was  personally  hostile  to  Simon  de  Cramaud,  whom  he  had 
balked  of  the  cardinal's  hat  which  Clement  the  Seventh  desired 
to  send  to  the  Duke  of  Berri's  chancellor,  still  the  new  Pope  was 
universally  believed  to  be  in  favour  of  the  '  way  of  cession.'  To 
a  deputation  of  the  University  of  Paris,  sent  to  congratulate 
him  on  his  accession,  he  remarked,  using  a  simile  of  his  prede- 
cessor, that  he  could  abdicate  as  easily  as  he  doffied  his  cope.^ 
On  the  day  of  his  coronation  he  wrote  to  King  Charles 
announcing  his  intention  to  work  with  him  for  the  unity  of  the 

1  Kehrmann,  5,  23.  ^  Rdigieux,  i.  694.  *  Ibid-.  \\.,  2P^^ 


THE  WAY  OF  CESSION  175 

Church.  The  King  was  delighted.  He  consulted  the 
Carthusians  and  the  Celestines  as  to  the  best  way  of  ending 
the  Schism;  he  held  a  council  of  the  French  clergy;  he 
addressed  himself  to  the  saintly  Jean  de  Varennes,  who  was 
emulating  the  fame  of  Peter  of  Luxemburg.  It  was  agreed 
upon  that  the  '  way  of  cession  '  was  the  best  and  readiest 
method  of  solving  the  difficulty.  Meantime  Charles  sent 
Pierre  d'Ailly  to  Benedict  with  his  congratulations ;  the 
reformer  had  an  interview  with  the  Pope,  and  remained  his 
devoted  adherent  from  that  day. 

Shortly  after  this  the  Pope  sent  two  ambassadors  to  King 
Charles,  desiring  his  counsel ;  he  followed  this  up  by  sending 
two  further  envoys,  asking  that  no  plan  might  be  definitely 
concluded,  but  that  that  which  was  proposed  might  be  sent  to 
him  for  final  determination.  He  did  not  want  to  have  any 
'  way '  forced  upon  him  ;  he  desired,  in  conjunction  with  the  King 
of  France,  to  concert  some  plan  for  the  termination  of  the 
Schism.  This  was  the  attitude  which  the  Pope  assumed 
towards  the  French  court ;  it  was  frank  and  reasonable. 
Even  if  Charles  believed  Benedict  to  be  in  favour  of  the 
'  way  of  cession,'  it  was  clear  that  the  Pope  did  not  mean  to 
waive  his  right  to  discuss  the  plan  first,  if  necessary ;  and  it 
is  plain  that  whatever  plan  might  be  proposed,  there  were 
numberless  details  to  be  decided  before  it  could  be  finally 
adopted.^  The  Pope,  in  fine,  merely  asked  the  King  for  a 
pious  opinion  ;  but  Charles  gave  him  more  than  he  asked  for : 
he  sent  him  a  cut-and-dried  scheme.  The  affairs  of  the 
Church  were  apparently  to  be  managed  not  by  the  Pope,  but 
by  the  French  court.  The  King  had  convoked  a  council  of 
the  national  Church  on  Candlemas  Day,  1395;  and  the 
great  majority  had  been  in  favour  of  the  '  way  of  cession.' 
The  same  plan  for  ending  the  Schism  had  been  approved  by 
the  University  of  Paris,  which  had,  moreover,  especially  dis- 
couraged the  '  way  of  a  council.'  The  leai'ned  Doctors  had 
no  desire  that  measures  of  importance  should  be  referred  for 
decision  to  the  little  Italian  bishops,  ignorant  of  law,  but 
infinite  in  number,  of  whom,  it  was  feared,  the  majority  of  a 
general  council  would  be  composed.     Thus  began  the  strife 

*  Ehrle,  v.  407  ;  Jarry,  129, 


176     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

between  the  Pope  at  Avignon  and  the  University  of  Paris ; 
the  Pope  tried  to  deprive  members  of  the  University  of  their 
benefices,  and  the  University  in  1396  appealed  to  the  '  next 
sole,  true,  orthodox,  and  universal  Pope."" 

Benedict  the  Thirteenth  was  a  Spaniard,  and  the  French 
court  made  common  cause  against  him  with  the  canon  lawyers 
of  the  University  of  Paris.     King  Charles  determined  to  send 
to  Avignon  an  imposing  embassy.      He  despatched  his  two 
uncles,  the  Dukes  of  Berri  and  Burgundy,  and  his  brother, 
the  Duke  of  Orleans,  with  a  large  train  of  councillors,  prelates, 
and   delegates,  as    ambassadors    to  Pope  Benedict.      It    was 
indeed  a  grand  embassy,   reflecting  the  greatest  honour  on 
the  potentate  to  whom  it  was  sent.     The  Duke  of  Burgundy 
had   long  been   known  as  an  advocate  for  the   union  of  the 
two  obediences;  his  Flemish  subjects  had  taught  Philip  the 
Bold    to    regard    Urbanists    with    impartiality   and    without 
disfavour.      Jean,   Duke   of  Berri,   the  eldest  of  the  King's 
uncles,  born  in   1340,  had  been  a  personal  friend    of  Pope 
Clement,  but   had   veered  round   to   his   brother's   opinions ; 
a  dilettante  grand  seigneur  rather  than  a  politician,  a  collector 
of  curiosities,  a  lover  of  sumptuous  edifices  and  fine  frescoes,  a 
lover  also  of  truffles  and  of  the  hounds  and  bears  of  Auvergne,^ 
Jean,  Duke  of  Berri,  had  proved  himself  ruthlessly  cruel  and 
exacting  as  an  administrator  and  hopelessly  incapable  as  a 
statesman.     The  Duke  of  Orleans  had  his  own  private  dream 
of  a    kingdom    in    Northern   Italy  to    which   Pope  Benedict 
might  help  him ;  he  soon  became  an   open  adherent  of  the 
new    pontiff.      The    delegates    of    the    University    of    Paris 
were  members  of  the  more   violent  party  led   by  Simon  de 
Cramaud,  Patriarch  of  Alexandria  and  Chancellor  to  the  Duke 
of  Berri,  who  coveted  the  tiara  for  himself;  the  more  moderate 
party  of  D'Ailly  and  Gerson  were  comparatively  powerless. 

The  embassy  reached  Avignon  on  the  22nd  May.  The 
Pope  had  already  taken  counsel  with  his  cardinals,  and  had 
decided  that  the  way  of  discussion  was  the  better  and  more 
reasonable.  He  took  an  early  opportunity,  in  the  presence 
of  the  cardinals,  of  informing  the  King's  ambassadors  of  his 
plan,  known  as  the  '  way  of  convention,'  whereby  he  and  his 
^  Simeon  Luce,  La  France  pendant  la  Guerre  de  cent  aiis,  i.  212  et  seq. 


THE  WAY  OF  CESSION  177 

sacred  college  were  to  meet  the  rival  Pope  and  his  cardinals 
in  some  secure  place  under  the  protection  of  the  King  of 
France,  in  order  to  discuss  the  matter  and  to  find  some 
means  of  ending  the  Schism.  On  the  1st  June  a  great  meet- 
ing of  the  embassy  with  the  Pope  and  his  cardinals  was  held. 
Gilles  des  Champs  discoursed  on  the  manifest  advantages  of 
the  '  way  of  cession,'  and  the  Duke  of  Berri  formally  announced 
that  this  was  the  scheme  to  which  the  King  of  France  had 
given  his  adherence.  The  Pope's  advice  was  not  asked  ;  he 
was  simply  told  that  he,  a  Spaniard,  was  to  abdicate  at  the 
bidding  of  the  French  King.  Benedict  the  Thirteenth  was 
not  a  man  to  be  driven  against  his  will ;  he  asked  to  be 
favoured  with  a  written  memoir  showing  the  reasons  which 
had  induced  His  Grace  to  come  to  this  conclusion,  and  the 
method  which  he  proposed  to  adopt  to  secure  its  fulfilment. 
To  this  the  royal  dukes  replied  that  there  was  no  need  for 
a  written  memoir,  since  the  whole  could  be  summed  up  in 
the  one  word  Abdication.  It  was  the  grossest  mistake  on 
their  part  to  adopt  this  bullying  tone  with  Pope  Benedict. 
He  did  not  believe  in  the  '  way  of  cession ' ;  it  had  never 
been  adopted  heretofore ;  it  was  impossible  to  procure  the 
simultaneous  abdication  of  the  rival  Popes.  He  informed 
the  royal  dukes  that  so  important  a  matter,  affecting  the 
interest  of  the  universal  Church,  could  not  be  settled  in  that 
brusque  fashion,  and  that  he  personally  would  do  nothing 
under  compulsion. 

That  same  evening  the  dukes  assembled  the  cardinals  at  Ville- 
neuve  and  required  of  them  forthwith  their  real  opinions.  This 
tampering  with  the  sacred  college  might,  and  indeed  did,  procure 
an  overwhelming  majority  in  favour  of  the  '  way  of  cession,'  but 
it  was  not  a  majority  obtained  in  this  questionable  manner  that 
Benedict  had  contemplated  in  the  oath  which  he  had  taken  both 
before  and  after  he  was  elected  pontiff.  He  refused  to  recognise 
the  opinion  so  obtained.  He  held  private  conferences  with  the 
dukes ;  he  reproached  the  cardinals  with  their  feebleness  and 
treachery,  telling  them  that  he  was  their  master,  responsible 
to  God  alone ;  but  all  his  efforts  were  in  vain  ;  the  embassy 
and  the  majority  of  the  cardinals  were  alike  in  favour  of  the 
'way  of  cession.'     The  proposal  of  the  '  wav  of  convention' 

M 


178     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

was  scouted,  and  not  even  discussed  ;  nor  was  the  suggestion, 
known  as  the  '  way  of  compromise,''  that  each  Pope  should 
appoint  the  same  number  of  arbitrators  and  be  bound  by  the 
votes  of  a  two-thirds  majority.  Pope  Benedict  was  ready  to 
be  burned  alive  rather  than  accept  the  '  way  of  cession.' 

When  the  negotiations  had  reached  this  unsatisfactory  stage 
the  wooden  bridge  between  Avignon  and  Villeneuve  caught  fire. 
The  Pope  was  at  once  suspected  of  the  arson.  He  declared  his 
innocence,  and  provided  a  bridge  of  boats  ;  but  the  wind  made 
the  passage  precarious,  and  the  dukes  were  obliged  to  cross  the 
Rhone  from  Villeneuve  to  Avignon,  and  to  content  themselves 
with  the  houses  which  the  cardinals  placed  at  their  disposal. 
For  seven  weeks  did  the  negotiations  continue ;  at  the  end  of 
that  time  the  three  royal  princes  returned  baffled  to  Paris. 
Their  mission  had  been  a  total  failure,  and  the  King's  uncles 
never  forgave  Pope  Benedict  the  humiliation  they  had 
endured. 

The  advantages  of  the  conflict  lay  with  the  Pope.     He  had 
gained  over  Duke  Louis  of  Orleans  to  his  side,  and  had  made 
an  agreement  with  him  in  August.     The  Duke,  like  his  uncles, 
had  been  in  favour  of  the  policy  of  abdication  ;  he  still  remained 
in  favour    of  it,   but   was   determined    that    Benedict  should 
abdicate  of  his  own  free  will,  and  should  not  be  forced  into 
abdication.     Henceforth  there  was  bitter  enmity  between  the 
King's  brother  of  Orleans  and  his  uncle  of  Burgundy  ;  and 
there  was  a  split  in   the  University.     The  Picards  and   the 
Normans  followed  the  lead  of  Burgundy ;  the  French  nation 
exhibited  warm  sympathy  with  the  Duke  of  Orleans.^     Bene- 
dict made  Nicolas  de  Clamanges  his  secretary  and  librarian ; 
he  promoted  Pierre  d'Ailly  to  the  bishopric  of  Du  Puy.     The 
future  Bishop  of  Cambrai,  to  which  see  he  was  promoted  soon 
after,  was  succeeded  as  Chancellor  of  Notre  Dame  by  Jean 
Gerson,  a  protege  of  the  House  of  Burgundy,^  thirteen  years 
the  junior  in  age  of  D'Ailly,  but  already  one   of  the  most 
influential  and  at  the  same  time  one  of  the  most  moderate 
ecclesiastics  of  France.      The  Duke  wanted   Gerson   to  take 
also  the  post  of  King  s  confessor,  which  D'Ailly  had  vacated, 
but  being  anxious  to  avoid  court  intrigues  he  declined,  and 
^  Bess,  30-31.  ^  Schwab,  267. 


THE  WAY  OF  CESSION  179 

it  was  bestowed  on  Jean  Courtecuisse,  an  out  and  out 
advocate  of  the  Burgundian  policy  of  subtraction  of  obedi- 
ence. Gerson's  view  of  the  situation  was  eminently  politic 
and  far-seeing.  He  represented  the  Faculty  of  Theology  in 
opposition  to  the  Faculty  of  Canon  Law,  at  the  head  of 
which  stood  Simon  de  Cramaud.  He  held  that  it  was  better 
to  postpone  all  consideration  of  the  way  of  cession  until  the 
other  nations  of  Europe  had  been  consulted,  that  it  was 
unwise  to  enforce  the  way  of  cession  in  France  alone,  that 
the  plan  lost  all  its  advantages  unless  it  was  adopted  by 
the  countries  of  both  obediences  simultaneously.^  The 
opposition  to  him  in  the  University  was  so  great  that  he 
determined  to  leave  Paris,  and  for  four  years  he  remained 
at  Bruges  as  Dean,  although  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  unwill- 
iner  to  lose  altoscether  the  services  of  so  eminent  a  divine, 
persuaded  him  to  retain  the  Chancellorship  of  the  University. 
Gerson  complied,  but  remained  an  opponent  of  the  extremist 
party. 

There  were  other  manifestations  also  in  favour  of  Pope 
Benedict.  While  the  royal  embassy  was  still  at  Avignon, 
the  Dominican  friar  Azo  published  a  tractate  in  defence  of 
the  Pope,  in  which  he  styled  the  University  of  Paris  a 
daughter  of  the  devil,  a  mother  of  error,  an  enemy  of  the 
Holy  Roman  Church.  The  University  of  Toulouse  was 
energetic  on  the  side  of  Benedict ;  the  University  of  Oxford 
had  condemned  the  proposed  '  way  of  cession.'  But  although 
the  Pope  had  gained  adherents  among  those  churchmen  who 
were  not  prepared  at  once  to  proceed  to  extremities,  he  must 
have  known  that  it  would  be  open  war  henceforth  between 
himself  and  the  French  court,  or  at  any  rate  between  himself 
and  that  part  of  it  which  was  represented  by  the  powerful 
Dukes  of  Burgundy  and  Berri.  Their  tactics  had  undergone 
a  complete  change  since  they  had  a  stiff-necked  Spaniard  to 
deal  with  instead  of  the  complaisant  Clement.  Benedict,  as 
the  Archbishop  of  Reims  said,  '  came  from  the  country  that 
the  good  mules  came  from';  he  was  tenacious  of  purpose  and 
inflexible.  Nor  was  he  to  blame.  He  had  other  countries 
besides  France  in  his  obedience,  and  must  take  thought  also 

^  Schwab,  140. 


180     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

for  their  spiritual  interest.  He  had  no  guarantee  that  the  King 
of  France  would  be  able  to  procure  the  abdication  of  the  Pope 
at  Rome.  If  Benedict  resigned  and  Boniface  did  not  follow 
his  example,  even  then  the  Schism  would  not  terminate  with 
the  universal  acceptance  of  Boniface  as  the  true  and  only 
Pope,  for  there  was  very  little  doubt  that  after  a  decent 
interval  of  time  the  French  court  would  procure  the  election 
of  another  Pope  more  subservient  than  Benedict.  This  was 
his  belief;  he  made  no  secret  of  it;  on  the  contrary,  he 
published  it  in  various  courts.^  The  use  of  compulsion  to- 
wards the  two  claimants  of  a  disputed  succession,  says  Bishop 
Creighton,^  was  at  the  best  merely  a  clumsy  attempt  to  cut 
the  knot  instead  of  untying  it. 

In  the  year  after  the  failure  of  the  embassy  of  the  royal 
princes  there  were  two  embassies  from  Rome  to  Avignon,  two 
also  from  Avignon  to  Rome.     Boniface  was  very  suspicious  : 
the  first  envoys   from  Benedict  got  no  further  than  Fondi ; 
they  were  not  allowed   to    enter   Rome,  being  suspected    of 
conspiracy.      The    second    ambassador    was    the    Bishop    of 
Tarazona ;  he  was  allowed  to  enter,  but  was  not  permitted 
to  go  outside  the  Vatican.     Boniface  wished  to  persuade  his 
rival  to   efface  himself  entirely ;    he   knew  that  France  had 
fallen  out  with  its  Pope.     Benedict   urged  that  he  had  been 
present  at  the  election  of  Urban,  and  knew,  as  did  all  the 
other  cardinals,  that  it   was   null  and  void ;  and   even  if  he 
were  to  resign,  the  kingdoms  of  Aragon,  Castile,  and  France 
would  never  obey  the  Pope  at  Rome ;  whereas  if  the  Pope 
at  Rome  resigned  neither  the  King  of  the  Romans  nor  the 
King  of  Hungary   would  raise  the  slightest  objection.     The 
embassies  were  fruitless ;    but  their  interest  lies  in   the  fact 
that  Pope  Benedict  now  for  the  first  time  proposed  that  he 
and  his  rival  should  meet  and  discuss  matters  and  should  so 
find   a  solution   of   the   difficulty.      This    plan,   the  '  way  of 
convention,'  was   Benedict's  favourite  scheme ;    it  forms    the 
key  to  the  policy  of  his  pontificate.     He  was  persuaded  that 
if  he  could  meet  his  rival  and  could  discuss  the  state  of  the 
Church  with  him,  then  his  own  right  and  his  eloquence,  either 
or  both,  would  ensure  him  the  victory.^     He  preferred  this 
1  Schwab,  139.  2  Creighton,  i.  150.  *  Ehrle,  vi.  186. 


THE  WAY  OF  CESSION  181 

plan  to  the  '  way  of  cession,'  which  was  one-sided,  or  the 
'  way  of  a  council,""  which  was  dilatory.  The  plan  was 
certainly  plausible.  It  was  far  easier  to  arrange  a  meeting 
of  the  rival  Popes,  from  which  probably  one  would  emerge 
as  sole  Pope  and  the  other  as  the  first  and  richest  cardinal, 
than  to  arrange  for  a  simultaneous  abdication  to  the  detriment 
of  both  and  to  the  advantage  of  some  third  party.  A  further 
advantage  of  this  plan  was  that  it  would  bring  the  principals 
face  to  face  and  enable  them  to  arrange  most  matters  in  dispute 
speedily  and  finally.  Benedict  the  Thirteenth  had  been  an 
ambassador,  and  knew  how  much  can  be  effected  by  a  good 
case  and  a  ready  tongue.  All  through  the  first  fourteen  years 
of  his  pontificate  he  endeavoured  to  inculcate  the  virtues  of  the 
*  way  of  convention,'  but  he  was  never  able  to  put  the  method 
to  a  decisive  test. 

Charles  the  Sixth,  on  learning  the  failure  of  the  mission, 
resolved  to  address  the  other  courts  of  Europe,  and  de- 
spatched embassies  accordingly.  He  received  varied  answers. 
The  King  of  Castile  was  affronted  because  action  had  been 
taken  without  consulting  him  ;  he  was  inclined  to  attribute 
the  change  in  policy  to  the  fact  that  the  new  Pope  was  a 
Spaniard.^  At  first  he  approved  the  '  way  of  convention ';  ^ 
eventually,  however,  he  became  an  ardent  adherent  of  the 
'  way  of  cession.'  Martin,  the  new  King  of  Aragon,  on  the 
other  hand,  was  and  remained  one  of  the  warmest  partisans  of 
his  fellow-countryman.  In  England,  despite  the  King,  the 
University  of  Oxford  and  the  clergy  generally  were  opposed 
to  the  '  way  of  cession '  and  in  favour  of  the  '  way  of  a 
council ' :  so,  too,  was  an  assembly  held  at  Aachen.  Both 
England  and  Germany,  however,  contemplated  a  council  which 
should  be  called  and  presided  over  by  Pope  Boniface,  and 
whose  business  should  be  the  extrusion  of  Pope  Benedict. 
Indeed,  if  a  general  council  were  to  be  convoked,  and  if  it 
were  to  consist,  as  it  ordinarily  would,  of  bishops  and  abbots, 
then  the  representatives  of  the  numberless  small  sees  and 
convents  in  Italy  would  swamp  those  of  the  much  larger  but 
less  numerous  holdings  in  the  north.  The  Elector  Arch- 
bishops, King  Sigismund  of  Hungary,  the  Dukes  of  Austria 
1  Hergenroether,  ii.  822.  ^  Hefele,  vi.  847. 


182     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

and  Bavaria,  approved  the  method  of  simultaneous  abdication, 
but  no  decisive  action  could  be  taken  until  a  conference 
had  been  held  with  the  King  of  the  Romans ;  and  Wenzel 
vacillated,  trying  to  keep  in  with  both  Popes.  The  Germans, 
said  the  envoy  Pierre  Plaoul,  could  not  refute  the  French 
arguments,  and  had  nothing  better  of  their  own  to  propose. 

The  paroxysms  of  madness  to  which  Charles  the  Sixth  was 
liable,  are  the  chief  cause  of  that  distressing  want  of  con- 
tinuity which  characterises  the  foreign  and  ecclesiastical  policy 
of  the  realm  from  the  year  1392  onwards.  The  King  himself 
was  much  more  alive  to  the  welfare  of  France  and  the  welfare 
of  Christendom  than  were  his  uncles  or  his  brother,  into  whose 
hands  his  temporary  madness  threw  the  conduct  of  affairs. 
Each  of  them  had  his  own  private  interest  to  follow.  This 
want  of  continuity  was  exemplified  when  the  fresh  convocation 
met.  The  King  himself  was  mad  ;  the  Duke  of  Burgundy 
was  absent;  consequently  the  conduct  of  affairs  was  in  the 
hands  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans.  He  was  a  partisan  of  Pope 
Benedict,  and  was  resolved  not  to  push  him  to  extremity. 
Hence  it  followed  that  all  that  the  convocation  decided  was 
that  another  embassy  should  be  sent  to  Pope  Benedict  urging 
him  to  abdicate.  On  this  occasion,  however,  France  was  not 
to  act  alone ;  England  and  Castile  were  to  unite  with  her,  and 
the  joint  embassy  was  to  visit  both  Popes  and  to  urge  each 
to  abdicate. 

The  Kino-s  of  England  and  France  entrusted  the  letters 
announcing  their  embassies  to  the  two  Popes  to  the  hands  of 
a  Norman  squire,  Robert  le  Mennot,  commonly  known,  from 
his  travels  in  the  Holy  Land  and  his  visions,  as  Robert  the 
Hermit.  He  came  to  Avignon,  and  was  by  Benedict  himself 
entrusted  with  letters  for  the  rival  Pope  Boniface.  At  Rome 
Robert  proposed  that  both  Popes  should  unite  to  bring  about 
the  peace  of  the  Church,  failing  which  obedience  should  be 
subtracted  from  them.  The  Roman  cardinals  suggested  that, 
inasmuch  as  the  French  King  and  cardinals  were  opposed  to 
Benedict  and  seemed  to  be  on  the  point  of  choosing  a  new  Pope, 
Boniface  should  make  overtures  to  them.  The  Pope,  however, 
would  do  nothing  more  than  promise  to  think  over  and  take 
counsel  on  the  matter.     The  Hermit  offered  him  a  pension  of  a 


THE  WAY  OF  CESSION  183 

hundred  thousand  ducats  a  year  if  he  would  resign.  But  the 
Pope^s  last  words  were  : — '  Robert,  I  will  never  cede  my  rights 
to  any  one ;  vou  may  tell  your  King  so.  I  would  rather  never 
eat  or  drink  more,  nay,  I  would  give  up  my  part  in  heaven.'^ 
The  only  practical  result  of  Robert's  mission  was  that  it 
inclined  people,  especially  when  the  result  of  the  joint  embassy 
was  known,  to  believe  that  there  had  been  collusion  between 
the  two  Popes. 

The  embassy  from  the  three  Kings  came  to  Avignon,  and 
on  the  16th  June  1397,  Gilles  des  Champs,  speaking  for  the 
Kings  of  England,  France,  and  Castile,  begged  Pope  Benedict 
to  adopt  the  '  way  of  cession.''  The  Pope  consulted  with  the 
cardinals,  the  majority  of  whom  backed  up  the  request  made 
by  the  embassy.  Benedict,  however,  replied  that  the  matter 
had  not  been  properly  considered,  and  that  he  must  take 
further  thought  and  counsel.  He  was  threatened  that,  were 
the  union  of  the  Church  not  accomplished  by  next  Candlemas 
(2nd  February),  the  obedience  of  his  spiritual  subjects  would 
be  withdrawn  from  him.  The  Pope  remained  firm  ;  threats 
were  of  no  avail  to  make  him  accept  the  '  way '  of  which  he 
disapproved.  The  embassy  went  on  to  Rome,  arriving  there 
in  September  1397.  Here  they  were  milder  in  their  language, 
but  not  more  successful.  Boniface  answered  them  much  as 
Benedict  had  done;  he  would  promise  nothing;  he  would  do 
nothing  without  more  thought  and  further  counsel.  The 
joint  embassy  of  the  three  Kings  was  a  failure. 

Moreover,  at  this  time  Pope  Boniface  appointed  John  of 
Nassau  to  be  Archbishop  of  Mainz,  and  while  he  thus  gained 
a  sturdy  adherent  in  the  first  Elector  of  the  Empire,  at  the 
same  time  he  counter-worked  the  efforts  of  the  French  King, 
who  had  sent  his  own  representatives  and  also  the  delegates  of 
the  University  of  Paris  to  attend  the  important  Diet  which 
was  to  be  held  at  Frankfurt,  A  new  move  was  now  in  con- 
templation ;  the  method  of  neutrality  was  to  be  tried  ;  it  was 
deemed  that  if  allegiance  were  rendered  to  neither  Pope,  if  the 
spiritual  obedience  of  their  subjects  were  subtracted  from 
both  rivals,  and  if  they  were  thus  threatened  with  loss  of 
revenue,  each  would  be  ready  to  descend  from  his  throne,  to 
^  Hefele,  vi.  848;  Valois,  iii.  122. 


184     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

accept  a  rich  cardinalship,  to  prefer  a  lucrative  abdication 
rather  than  a  pauper  reign.  It  was  not  an  entirely  new 
scheme ;  it  had  been  proposed  and  adopted  by  Henry  of 
Castile  ^  at  the  beginning  of  the  Schism ;  but  now  it  was  to 
be  tried  on  a  grand  scale,  and  with  greater  hope  of  success. 
Jean  Courtecuisse  pointed  out  that  it  was  the  enjoyment  of 
the  loaves  and  fishes  which  prevented  the  Pope  from  agreeing 
to  the  'way  of  cession.'^  The  Popes  must  be  reduced  to 
beggary ;  and  beggars  could  not  be  choosers. 

The  Diet  of  Frankfurt,  the  importance  of  which  was  re- 
cognised by  every  one  except  the  King  of  the  Romans,  was 
convened  by  the  Electors  of  the  Empire  and  was  held  on  the 
13th  May  1397.  Representatives  from  both  Popes,  from  the 
Kings  of  England,  France,  Aragon,  and  Castile,  from  the 
Dukes  of  Burgundy  and  Brittany  and  the  Duchess  of  Brabant, 
were  present,  beside  more  than  thirty  princes,  a  large  number 
of  counts,  and  envoys  from  cities  and  universities.  It  was 
agreed  to  send  ambassadors  to  the  rival  Popes,  recommending 
them  to  abdicate.  The  Electors,  on  their  part,  not  recog- 
nising the  Pope  at  Avignon,  sent  only  to  Pope  Boniface ; 
their  ambassadors  were  accompanied  by  those  of  the  Kings 
of  England,  France,  Castile,  Navarre,  and  Aragon.  They 
humbly  requested  the  Pope  to  take  thought  for  the  union  of 
the  Church.  Boniface  in  reply  required  them  to  contemplate 
the  termination  of  the  Schism  only  through  the  universal 
recognition  of  the  Pope  at  Rome;  he  asked  them  to  impress 
on  King  Wenzel  the  necessity  for  his  journey  to  the  Eternal 
City  and  his  coronation  there.  Furthermore,  he  pointed  out 
the  extension  of  the  French  power  in  Italy  to  the  detriment 
of  the  Empire ;  Genoa  had  already  submitted  to  France,  and 
Florence  was  making  a  treaty  with  her;  while  the  Electors, 
by  their  ambiguous  and  irresolute  conduct,  were  really  aiding 
the  French  King  and  the  French  Pope.  '  I  alone  am  the 
true  Pope,"*  said  Boniface,  ' and  I  will  never  abdicate.'^  The 
Florentines,  in  an  embassy  which  they  sent  to  the  Electors, 
corroborated  what  Pope  Boniface  had  said.  The  new  Arch- 
bishop of  Mainz,  and  the  new  Elector  Palatine,  both  ardent 

^  Lindner  ( f'F.),  i.  90  ;  Rdigieux,  i.  73,  note.  ^  Reltgieux,  ii.  526. 

*  Tartini,  ii.  380. 


THE  WAY  OF  CESSION  185 

partisans  of  Boniface,  took  up  the  same  parable  against  King 
Wenzel :  he  was  the  only  man  who  could  oppose  France 
effectually,  and  he  had  abetted  French  designs ;  he  had 
created  Gian  Galeazzo,  father-in-law  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans, 
Duke  of  Milan  ;  he  had  neglected  the  interest  of  the  Empire 
in  Savoy,  in  Flanders,  and  in  Brabant. 

The  Diet  at  Frankfurt,  although  it  failed  in  inducing  the 
rival  Popes  to  do  anything  toward  ending  the  Schism,  had, 
however,  another  indirect  effect.  King  Wenzel  was  at  length 
aroused  from  his  sloth  by  the  revolutionary  proceedings  of  the 
Electors.  He  recognised  that,  whether  he  would  appoint  a 
regent  for  the  Empire  or  not,  he  must  at  any  rate  do  some- 
thing toward  ending  the  Schism.  The  Duke  of  Orleans  was 
in  communication  with  him,  desirous  of  securing  for  his  son 
the  hand  of  the  fair  and  Avealthy  Elizabeth  of  Goerlitz ;  and 
Wenzel  promised  the  Duke  to  meet  the  French  King  at  Reims. 
Having  made  up  his  mind,  neither  Pope  nor  Elector  could 
dissuade  him ;  and  on  the  28th  March  1398  the  two  Kings 
met  in  the  old  cathedral  town.  They  were  a  curious  couple 
to  settle  the  affairs  of  Christendom  ;  both  well-intentioned 
men,  but  the  one  a  sot,  the  other  a  madman.  The  Dukes  of 
Berri  and  Bourbon  were  sent  to  invite  Wenzel  to  dinner,  but 
they  were  too  late ;  he  was  already  dead  drunk  for  the  day 
and  was  sleeping  off  the  effects  of  his  wine.  The  next  day  the 
two  Kings  met  and  dined  together ;  with  them  were  the  King 
of  Navarre  and  the  Patriarch  of  Alexandria.  The  subject  of 
the  Schism  was  broached.  The  argument  of  the  French  was 
that  the  plans  of  a  compromise  by  arbitration  or  of  a  general 
council  were  uncertain  in  their  operation  ;  that  it  would  not 
redound  to  the  honour  of  France  to  admit  a  mistake  in 
adhering  to  Clement  nor  to  the  honour  of  Germany  to  admit 
a  similar  error  in  her  obedience  to  Urban  ;  that,  therefore,  the 
only  honourable  course  for  both  countries,  and  the  only  sure 
way  of  ending  the  Schism,  was  for  France  to  procure  the 
abdication  of  Benedict  and  for  Wenzel  to  procure  that  of 
Boniface.  The  cession  of  both  Popes  could  be  practically 
enforced  by  the  subtraction  of  their  obedience  from  them  of 
the  countries  concerned.  On  the  following  day  Charles  was 
hurried  off  to  Paris,  as  a  fresh  fit  of  madness  was  threatening. 


186     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

Colloquies    were    continued    for   three   weeks    between    King 
Wenzel  and  the  Duke  of  Orleans ;  and  the  Canons  of  Toul 
alleged  that  it  was  agreed  that  no  person  was  to  be  molested  for 
adhering  to  one  Pope  rather  than  the  other.^     Pierre  d'Ailly,  the 
new  Bishop  of  Cambrai,  was  sent  from  the  French  and  German 
Kings  as  joint  ambassador  to  Avignon.     He  was  accompanied 
by  the  secretary  and  the  confessor  to  the  King  of  the  Romans. 
In  addressing  the  Pope,  Pierre  d'Ailly  was  diplomatic  to 
the  verge  of  inconsistency  :    he  said  not  a  word  of  abdica- 
tion ;  he  rather  continued  his  discourse  of  four  years  earlier, 
when  he  had  congratulated  the  Pope  on  his  accession,  as  if 
nothing   had  happened    meantime.     When  he   had    finished, 
the  two  Germans  asked  Pope  Benedict  if  he  would  abdicate, 
and  the  Pope  answered  that  under  existing  circumstances  it 
would  be  a  mortal  sin.^     This  was  the  second,  but  not  the 
last,  time  that   Pope  Benedict  was  pressed    by  the    French 
court  to   abdicate  without  any  efficient  means  being  simul- 
taneously taken  to  procure  the  abdication  of  his  rival.     If  he 
had  abdicated,  what  would  have  happened  ?    There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  Boniface  the  Ninth,  finding  himself  sole  Pope,  and 
with  the  Jubilee  in  view,  would  have  refused  to  lay  down  his 
triple  crown.     What  would  the  French  court  then  have  done  ? 
Two   courses  were  open   to    them  :    they   might    either  have 
recognised   Boniface  as  sole  Pope,  or  they  might,  and  they 
probably  would,  have  elected  a  new  Pope ;  and  in  this  case 
they  would  have  taken  care  to  get  a  man  elected  more  after 
the  pattern  of  Clement  the  Seventh  than  was  Benedict  the 
Thirteenth.     What  they  wanted  was  a  Pope  who  would  tax 
the  clergy  for  them,  who  would  '  shear  the  sheep '  closely,  and 
o-ive  them    most  of  the  wool.     Benedict  hated    simony  and 
would  not  do  this;    under  him  the  French  clergy  were  pro- 
tected from  the  exorbitant  demands  of  the  French  court,  and 
this  explains  why  the  French  King  found  it  so  difficult  to  get 
the  rank  and  file  of  the  French  clergy  to  follow  him  in  the 
harsher  measures   which   were   proposed   from  time   to  time 
against  Pope  Benedict.      The  French   court  and  the  canon 
lawyers  who,  under  Simon  de  Cramaud,  ruled  the  University 
of  Paris,  were  of  one  mind;  but  the  majority  of  the  clergy 

1  Valois,  iii.  132.  "^  Ibid.  hi.  135;  Tschackert,  102. 


THE  WAY  OF  CESSION  187 

and  the  University  of  Toulouse  were  of  the  opposite.  To 
abdicate  would  have  been  to  deliver  the  Church  within  his 
obedience  up  to  the  ruthless  exactions  of  the  French  court  or 
to  the  shameless  simony  of  Pope  Boniface.  It  is  small  wonder, 
therefore,  that  Pope  Benedict  declared  that  abdication  under 
the  existing  circumstances  would  be  a  deadly  sin.  This  Pope 
has  been  described  by  a  recent  writer  as  '  a  man  of  blameless 
life,  vast  learning,  great  charity,  and  apparently  sincere  piety ; 
insensible  to  moral  or  physical  fear,  there  was,  nevertheless, 
something  mysterious  and  inscrutable  in  his  bearing  and 
character — a  man  of  upright  life  and  lofty  ideals,  zealously 
striving  to  find  where  the  hidden  jewel  of  truth  lay  concealed, 
and  to  follow  where  he  deemed  that  the  light  led.'  ^  Whether 
this  description  be  true  in  all  its  details  or  not,  it  is  certain 
that  the  Pope  had  to  contend  throughout  against  the  court 
which  should  have  been  his  protector,  that  he  had  to  contend 
against  the  majority  of  his  cardinals,  whose  benefices  lay 
within  the  territory  of  that  court,  and  this  life  of  contention 
naturally  hardened  his  obstinacy  and  increased  his  self-conceit. 
He  saw  that  his  opponents  were  in  the  wrong,  and  he  came  to 
persuade  himself  that  he  alone  was,  and  that  he  alone  could 
be,  in  the  right. 

From  Avignon  Pierre  d'Ailly  went  to  Fondi,  where  he 
found  Pope  Boniface,  and  thence  on  to  Rome  for  a  Consistory 
of  the  cardinals  before  whom  the  question  of  cession  was 
propounded.  The  cardinals  determined  that  Boniface  should 
not  abdicate  unless  Benedict  had  previously  abdicated.  The 
unsuccessful  bishop,  who  probably  had  expected  no  other 
result  from  his  mission,  returned  and  brought  the  news  to 
King  Wenzel  at  Coblenz  and  then  to  King  Charles  at  Paris.^ 
Such  is  the  story  as  usually  told.  It  is,  however,  very  doubtful 
whether  Pierre  d'Ailly  went  on  to  Rome  from  Avignon ;  the 
time  allowed  for  the  journey  certainly  seems  very  inadequate. 
The  probability  is  that  he  abandoned  his  original  intention 
and  returned  to  Coblenz  and  Paris  from  Avignon.^ 

Before  the  Bishop  of  Cambrai  returned  to  Paris  the  King 
of  France  had  already  set  to  work   in   decided  fashion.     He 

^  Gardner,  256-7.  *  Tschackert,  102;  Salembier,  44;  Schwab,  144. 

*  Lindner  (IV.),  ii.  $11  ;  Valois,  iii.  135. 


188     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

convoked  a  grand  assembly  of  the  clergy  of  France,  to  be 
presided  over  by  the  King,  the  royal  princes,  and  the  barons, 
who  thus  transformed  an  ecclesiastical  into  a  national  council ; 
and  the  question  for  discussion  was  the  policy  to  be  pursued 
toward  the  Pope.  The  council  was  to  deliver  itself  of  a  pious 
opinion  which  the  King  could  adopt  or  not  as  he  chose.  It 
was  acknowledged  by  all  that  a  Pope  could  be  deposed  for 
heresy ;  but  the  practical  question  now  was  whether  a  Pope 
who  refused  or  neglected  to  take  measures  to  heal  the  Schism, 
whether  a  Pope  who,  in  other  words,  was  a  persistent  Schismatic, 
was  ipso  facto  a  heretic,  and  to  be  treated  as  such.  This  was 
the  point  for  decision.  This  was  the  third  council  held  on 
the  Schism ;  it  was  more  fully  attended  than  the  former  two 
had  been.  Forty-four  archbishops  and  bishops  were  present ; 
monasteries,  chapters,  and  universities  were  represented ;  up- 
wards of  three  hundred  clerks  in  all  appeared  under  the 
presidency  of  Charles  of  Navarre,  as  representing  the  lunatic 
King,  and  in  the  presence  of  the  Dukes  of  Berri,  Burgundy, 
Orleans,  and  Bourbon.  The  debate  was  opened  by  a  violent 
diatribe  from  Simon  de  Cramaud,  who  described  the  '  way  of 
cession '  as  being  demanded  not  only  by  France,  but  also  by 
the  Kings  of  Hungary,  Bohemia,  England,  Aragon,  Castile, 
Navarre,  and  Sicily  ;  he  accused  Pope  Benedict  of  perjury,  and 
demanded  the  subtraction  of  obedience  from  him.  Other 
harangues  on  each  side  followed.  Gilles  des  Champs  alone 
ventured  to  doubt  whether  they  could  subtract  their  obedience 
unless  and  until  the  Pope  had  been  condemned  by  an 
oecumenical  council.  After  a  week  of  stormy  argument,  the 
debate  was  closed  by  another  harangue  from  the  Patriarch  of 
Alexandria.  He  described  how  Benedict  had  been  false  to  his 
coronation  oath ;  how  he  had  repulsed  his  cardinals  when  they 
begged  him  on  their  knees,  with  tears  in  their  eyes,  to  resign ; 
he  cited  scores  of  passages  from  the  canon  law  to  show  that 
such  obstinacy  justified  a  subtraction  of  obedience;  he  cited 
other  passages  to  prove  that  such  schism  was  idolatry,  that  it 
was  equivalent  to  heresy,  that  in  the  time  of  Alexander  the 
Third  it  had  been  adjudged  to  be  heresy.  The  heated  argu- 
ments of  the  orator,  who  would  be  the  first  ecclesiastic  in 
France  when  the  papal  authority  was  removed,  the  show  of 


THE  WAY  OF  CESSION  189 

learning  and  of  patriotism  of  Simon  de  Cramaud,  had  their 
effect.  There  was  no  doubt  as  to  the  general  sense  of  the 
council.  A  majority,  nominally  of  247  against  53,  possibly  of 
not  more  than  forty  or  fifty,^  were  in  favour  of  the  total 
subtraction  of  obedience.  The  royal  dukes  and  the  University 
of  Paris  approved  the  more  drastic  measure  of  total  subtrac- 
tion, although  to  this  extreme  policy  a  large  number  of  the 
clergy  were  hostile  or  indifferent.  It  was  a  serious  blow  to 
the  papal  power  in  France,  an  immense  strengthening  of  the 
Galilean  spirit.^  The  King  meantime,  owing  to  his  illness, 
had  been  unable  to  consider  the  matter  personally;  but 
advantage  was  taken  of  his  pretended  recovery  of  health  to 
get  him  to  sign,  on  the  27th  July,  the  decree  for  the  total 
subtraction  of  obedience.  The  clergy  then  proceeded  to 
arrange  for  the  supplementary  details  connected  with  Church 
governance  during  the  subtraction. 

Boucicaut,  Marshal  of  France,  and  Pierre  d"Ailly,  Bishop 
of  Cambrai,  were  sent  to  carry  intimation  of  these  things  to 
Pope   Benedict.      They  rode    together   to  Lyons,   where  the 
marshal  tarried  while  the  bishop  went  on.     He  met  the  Pope, 
'and  whan    the   bysshoppe   came    to    the   utteraunce   of  the 
mater,  howe  the  Pope  shulde  resygne  and  depose  hymselfe  fro 
the  papall  dygn;yte,  and  that  he  that  was  at  Rome  shulde  do 
likewyse,   with  those   wordes   the    Pope  beganne  to  chaunge 
colour,  and  lyfte  up  his  voyce  and  sayd  :    "  I  have  endured 
great   payne   and    traveyle   for   the    churche,   and    by    good 
election  I  was  created  Pope,  and  nowe  to  depose  myselfe,  that 
shall  I  never  do  during  my  lyfe ;  and   I  will  that  the  Frenche 
K^mge  know  that  for  all  his  ordynaunce  I  wyll  do  nothing 
thereafter,  but  I  will  keep  my  name  and  papalyte  tyll  I  dye.'"" ' 
The  next  day  there  was  a  Consistory.     The  cardinals  agreed 
that  they  could  do  well  enough  with  the  King  of  Germany  if 
the  French  King  would  but  take  their  part;  '  but  it  is  other- 
wyse,  for  he  commaundeth  us  to  obey,  or  els  he  wyll  stoppe 
fro  us  the  fruites  of  our  benefyces,  without  the  whiche  we  can 
nat  lyve.'      They  therefore  counselled  abdication.      But  the 
Pope  was  firm.     'The  unyon  of  the  Churche  I  desyre,'  he  told 
them,  'and  I  have  taken  great  payne  therin,  but  syth  God  of 
1  Valois,  iii.  IT2  et  seq.  "  Kehrmann,  78. 


190     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

his  devyne  grace  hathe  provyded  for  me  the  papalyte,  and 
that  ye  have  chosen  me  therto,  as  longe  as  I  lyve  I  wyll  be 
Pope,  and  I  wyll  nat  depose  myselfe  nouthre  for  kyng,  duke, 
erle,  nor  other  treatie,  nor  by  no  processe  nor  means,  but  that 
I  will  abyde  Pope."'  This  is  the  story  told  by  the  old 
chronicler  who,  in  the  later  years  of  his  life,  lived  near 
Cambrai,  and  may  often  have  conversed  with  the  bishop ;  ^ 
but  it  has  been  subjected  to  destructive  criticism  by  Ehrle,^ 
and  the  probability  is  that  the  second  visit  of  Pierre  d'Ailly 
in  1398  is  a  myth.  The  Marshal's  own  Memoirs  know  nothing 
of  it.  The  messengers  who  brought  the  resolutions  of  the 
third  French  council  to  Pope  Benedict  were  Robert  Cordelier 
and  Tristan  de  Bosc. 

The  ordonnance,  signed  by  the  King  of  France  on  the  27th 
July,  was  published  at  Avignon  on  the  first  day  of  September 
1398.  The  example  of  Charles  was  followed  by  Besaii9on  on 
the  30th  October,  by  the  Duke  of  Anjou  on  the  30th 
November,  by  the  King  of  Castile  on  the  12th  December,  and 
by  Charles  of  Navarre  on  the  14th  January.  Eighteen  of  the 
French  cardinals,  fearing  for  their  benefices,  immediately 
deserted  the  Pope  and  crossed  the  Rhone  into  French  territory, 
proclaiming  war :  '  Long  life  to  the  College  of  Cardinals  and 
the  People,  Death  to  Pedro  de  Luna  and  his  adherents.* 
From  Villeneuve  they  wrote  to  the  French  King,  informing 
him  of  their  submission.  Five  cardinals  remained  faithful  to 
Benedict,  who  was  ready  to  die  rather  than  submit.  They 
were  to  be  besieged  in  the  gloomy  papal  palace,  surrounded 
by  a  strong  palissade,  of  which  the  cardinals  kept  the  keys, 
but  within  which  the  Pope  maintained  two  hundred  armed 
men.^  There,  in  the  wide,  windy  plain  country  on  the  left 
bank  of  the  Rhone,  where  the  cypress-trees  are  planted  thick 
along  the  hedgerows  as  a  screen  from  the  stormy  Mistral,  in 
the  Comtat  Venaissin,  west  of  Mont  Ventoux  with  its  frequent 
cap  of  snow  and  east  of  the  lower  spurs  of  the  southern 
Cevennes,  in  the  city  which  they  had  purchased  from  Queen 
Joanna  the  First  of  Naples,  Popes  Benedict  the  Twelfth  and 
Clement  the  Sixth  had  built  themselves  a  palace  the  like  of 

^  Froissart,  vi.  326-7  ;  Tschackert,  103,  note.  -  Ehrle,  v.  465  ct  scq. 

^  Ibid.  vii.  193. 


THE  WAY  OF  CESSION  191 

which  has  never  been  seen  before  or  since.  Founded  on  a 
rock,  and  ahnost  joining  the  cathedral,  the  walls  rise  sheer  up, 
without  scroll  or  fretwork,  without  buttress  or  battlement,  in 
unbroken  severity  to  a  height  of  one  hundred  feet.  The 
building  within  was  ornamented  with  frescoes,  many  of  which 
still  retain  their  undiminished  beauty,  executed  by  artists  of 
the  school  of  Siena  and  others ;  but  without,  the  sombre 
Gothic  architecture  gives  the  palace  the  appearance  rather  of 
a  fortress  or  a  prison.  It  was  to  serve  Pope  Benedict  in  both 
these  capacities.  The  city  walls,  begun  when  the  Archpriest 
was  threatening  the  city,^  are  some  miles  in  circumference ; 
they  still  remain,  with  their  machicolated  battlements,  their 
two  score  towers,  and  some  of  their  gates,  although  the  moat 
which  once  encircled  them  has  disappeared. 

The  publication  of  the  ordonnance  subtracting  the  obedience 
of  France  from  the  Pope  decided  eighteen  of  his  cardinals  to 
break  from  him.  They  had  been  disaffected  since  1395 ;  they 
had  won  over  the  city  of  Avignon  to  their  side ;  they  were  in 
communication  with  Geoffroi  '  le  Meingre  dit  Boucicaut,'  the 
brother  of  Jean  the  Marshal,  who  had  been  besieging  the 
Count  of  Perigord.  The  cardinals  were  in  fear  of  King 
Martin  of  Aragon,  the  stalwart  partisan  of  his  countryman ; 
and  when  he  sent  to  remonstrate  witii  them,  they  feared  to 
tell  the  truth,  and  set  down  their  proceedings  to  Benedict's 
alleged  high-handed  conduct  toward  the  men  of  Avignon.  The 
subterfuge  profited  them  nothing,  for  King  Martin  sent  a 
fleet  which  got  as  far  as  Aries,  and  some  part  of  it  further 
still  up  the  river,  to  the  support  of  Pope  Benedict.-  The 
galleys  were,  however,  not  able  to  reach  Avignon,  and  the 
cardinals  were  in  February  relieved  from  this  fear.  Their 
hopes  were  centred  in  the  troops  of  Geoff'roy  Boucicaut.  On 
the  22nd  September  1398  he  occupied  the  city  of  Avignon 
and  began  the  siege  of  the  papal  palace.  He  promised  the 
citizens''  wives  that  they  should  dance  in  the  palace,  but  he 
knew  not  Benedict  the  Thirteenth.  The  Pope  had  taken  his 
precautions :  he  had  stocked  his  fortress  with  provisions,  he 
had  furnished  it  with  engines  of  war,  he  had  defended  it  with 
artillery  and  cross-bowmen;  of  wood  alone  he  had  an  insuffi- 
^  Chevrest,  VArchipritre,  49.  -  Ehrle,  vii.  22  tt  seq. 


192     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

cient  supply.  The  besiegers  seized  the  bishop's  palace  and 
the  other  buildings  near ;  they  occupied  the  belfry  of  the 
cathedral  immediately  north  of  the  papal  palace;  they  fired 
the  wood  which  had  not  been  taken  inside,  but  left  stacked  by 
the  wall  of  the  northern  tower. 

On  one  occasion  the  Pope  was  wounded  in  the  shoulder  by 
a  stone  from  a  bombard.  On  the  24th  October  Boucicaut 
treacherously  took  prisoners  two  of  the  Pope's  faithful  five 
cardinals  who  were  holding  a  conference  with  three  of  their 
hostile  colleagues ;  on  the  26th  he  made  an  attempt  to  get 
into  the  palace  by  a  drain,  but  the  assailants  were  themselves 
surprised  in  the  papal  kitchen,  and  more  than  fifty  of  them 
were  taken  prisoners.  Mines  and  counter-mines  were  tried, 
but  Boucicaut  was  defeated  by  Pope  Benedict.  At  length,  on 
the  24th  November,  a  truce  was  agreed  to.  The  attack  was 
not  renewed,  but  the  state  of  siege  continued :  provisions 
began  to  run  short ;  the  garrison  were  reduced  to  salt  meat, 
to  dry  vegetables,  to  vinegar  and  water ;  cats  and  rats  were 
greedily  devoured,  but  sparrows  were  reserved  for  the  Pope's 
table.  It  was  agreed  that  the  quarrel  should  be  referred  to 
Paris.  It  was  felt  to  be  a  public  scandal  that  the  Head  of 
the  Church  should  be  thus  treated.  At  the  end  of  April 
1399  the  siege  was  raised  and  provisions  were  once  more  intro- 
duced into  the  papal  palace. 

Things  had  been  going  very  unfavourably  for  Pope  Benedict. 
The  Duke  of  Orleans  had  given  way ;  he  had  in  the  presence 
of  his  uncles  and  of  the  prelates  declared  that  after  profound 
reflection  he  agreed  to  the  view  of  the  council  and  with  the 
policy  of  subtraction ;  that  he  was  ready  to  use  his  influence 
with  the  King  of  the  Romans  and  the  Duke  of  Milan.^  Simon 
de  Cramaud,  in  a  transport  of  joy,  had  forwarded  this  news  to 
the  Cardinal  of  Jerusalem.-  Cardinal  de  Thury,  the  head  of 
the  opposition  in  the  Sacred  College  to  the  Pope,  with  two 
other  members,  had  come  to  Paris  full  of  threatenings  against 
Benedict.  They  were  ready  to  declare  him  heretic ;  they  were 
ready  to  convoke  a  council  of  their  own  obedience  to  depose 
him,  or  to  take  part  in  a  general  council  of  both  obediences  to 
proceed  against  both  pontiffs  alike.^  Neither  the  court  nor 
*  Jarry,  439.  "  Ehrle,  vi.  287.  '  Ibid.  vi.  288  et  seq. 


THE  WAY  OF  CESSION  198 

the  Parisians  were  ready  to  go  so  fast.  The  King's  chancellor 
told  them  tliat  it  was  the  cardinals,  and  not  the  King,  who 
were  holding  their  Pope  a  prisoner  for  heresy.  The  three 
cardinals  were  insulted  in  the  streets  of  Paris. 

Negotiations  commenced  between  Benedict  and  the  French 
court.     The   Pope,  after   the  manner  of  his   time,^   guarded 
himself  beforehand  by  a  protestation  before  a  notary  against 
any  unfavourable  concessions  which   he  might  be  compelled  to 
make  ;  dire  necessity   was  the  only  excuse  for  this  piece  of 
prudence  or  duplicity.     Benedict  was  anxious  that  the  Duke 
of  Orleans    should    be  appointed  as  his  protector,    and  the 
Duke  insisted  on  knowing  the  amount  of   submission  which 
the  Pope  was  ready  to  guarantee.     Ambassadors  went  to  and 
fro.     At  length,  on  the  30th  March  1391,  it  was  agreed  that 
Benedict  should  accept  the  '  way  of  cession,'  agreeing  to  abdi- 
cate if  his  rival  abdicated,  died,  or  was  deposed,  '  quod  eligatur 
tertius  unictis  verus  pastor  et  vicarius  Jhesn  Chiisti.''  '^     From  the 
spring  of  1399  onward,  therefore,  Pope  Benedict  was  a  prisoner 
in  his  own  palace ;   he  was  not  allowed  to  leave  it ;    for  six 
months    it   had    been    his   fortress,  henceforth  it    was   to    be 
his    prison.     France  at    this  time  was  without   a  pope;   the 
Lord  Jesus  was  their  Pope,  said  the  pious,  and  the  Blessed 
Virgin  was  their  Popess.     The  city  of  Liege  and  the  kingdom 
of  France  had  adopted  the  policy  of  subtracting  their  obedi- 
ence ;  with  the  exception  of  this  solitary  city  the  policy  had 
not  been  adopted  in  a  single  country  of  the  Urbanist  obedi- 
ence;   so  that  the  policy  of  Kings  Wenzel  and  Charles  had 
failed  altogether  of  the  desired  eflPect  of  inducing  both  Popes 
to  choose  a  lucrative  abdication  rather  than  a  pauper  reign. 
The  subtraction  of  obedience  had  not  been  adopted  in  any 
other  country  of  the  Clementine  obedience  except  Castile,  so 
that  it  had    merely   produced   a  schism   within    the   Schism. 
Moreover,  it  had  failed  of  its  effect  in  France  itself,  produc- 
ing an  internal  schism  in  the  only  country  in  which  it  was 
thoroughly  tried.      The  clergy  of  Brittany  refused  to  obey 
their  bishops  on  the  ground  that  the  bishops  had  ceased  to 
obey   their  Pope.      The   weary  negotiations  continued ;    but 
time  was  in  favour  of  the  Pope.     The  charge  of  the  Pope's 
'  Ehrle,  vi.  303.  -  Ibid.  v.  435. 


194     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCH.S 

imprisonment  was  taken  from  the  man  of  war  Boucicaut.  and 
was  on  the  18th  October  1401  made  over  to  Louis,  Duke  of 
Orleans,  the  King's  brother,  bound  in  honour  to  maintain  the 
custody,  but  known  to  be  well  disposed  toward  his  holy 
captive.  He  had  already,  at  the  beginning  of  September, 
sent  Guillaume  de  Meulhon  and  Robert  de  Bracquemont  to 
Avignon  for  this  purpose.^  They  were  to  try  to  reconcile  the 
Pope  and  the  recalcitrant  cardinals.  The  endeavours  of  the 
former  at  Villeneuve  were  repulsed  ;  those  of  the  former  at 
Avignon  later  took  a  different  and  more  practical  turn.  The 
Pope  was  left  with  his  five  faithful  cardinals,  chief  among 
them  being  his  relative,  the  Cardinal  of  Pampeluna;  he  had 
very  little  to  count  on  in  the  way  of  outside  help  at  this  time : 
Gerson  was  at  Bruges  from  1398  to  1401 ;  Pierre  d'Ailly  was 
at  Cambrai  from  1400  to  1403. 

The  close  of  the  fourteenth  century  was  marked  by  one  of 
those  outbursts  of  popular  fanaticism  which  occasionally  occur 
in    times   of  great  sorrow   or    peril.     In    the  middle  of  the 
century  the  Black  Death  had  seen  the  revival  of  the  sect  of 
the  Flagellants  ;  at  the  end  of  the  century  (1399)  appeared  the 
bands  of  the  White  Penitents.     They  swarmed  over  the  Alps 
into  Italy ;    no  one  knew  precisely  whence  they  came.     Five 
thousand  men,  women,  and  children,  hooded  and  clothed  in 
white,  many  of  them  bearing  the  red  cross  of  Saint  Andrew  on 
their  backs,  marched,  two  and  two.  to  Genoa ;  they  were  pre- 
ceded by  an  Ultramontane  priest,  who  carried  before  him  a 
sweating  crucifix.     The  aged  Archbishop  of  Genoa  put  himself 
at  the  head  of  the  band,  and  for  nine  days  the  penitents 
visited  the  adjacent   shrines,  chanting   the    mournful    dirge, 
Stahat  Mater  Dolorosa,  and  calling  on  all  to  be  reconciled 
with  their  enemies.     Processions  formed  at   Genoa   went  to 
Lucca  and  Pisa;    thence  others  passed  to  Pistoja,  to  Prato, 
and  to  Florence,  where  the  magistrates  lodged  and  fed  them 
at  the  public  expense.     From  Tuscany  the  penitents  flocked 
to  the  Papal  States  and  to  Naples ;  by  the  year  of  the  Jubilee 
they  had  overrun  Italy  and   arrived   in  Rome.     They  heard 
Mass  fasting,  they  ate  in  public ;  they  disdained  the  shelter 
of  houses  or  roofs,  but  lay   down   to  sleep  in  cemeteries  or 

1  Ehrle,  vii.  170. 


THE  WAY  OF  CESSION  195 

under  the  open  sky,  men  and  maidens  together,  with  results 
which  were  natural  but  only  too  sad.  These  fanatics  were 
regarded  with  mistrust  by  spiritual  and  temporal  authorities 
alike.  The  Dominican  Giovanni,  afterwards  to  be  a  cardinal, 
led  them  to  the  Church  of  the  Dominicans  in  Venice,  sang  the 
Mass  from  Jeremiah,  and  headed  the  procession  to  the  Church 
of  Saints  John  and  Paul.  But  the  head  of  the  Council  of  Ten 
met  him  with  his  guards ;  the  cross  was  torn  from  the  hands 
of  the  leader,  and  the  penitents  were  dispersed  ;  Giovanni  was 
banished  from  the  Republic  for  five  years,  and  his  two  help- 
meets, Leonardo  Fisani  and  Antonia  Sozzano,  for  a  year  each.^ 
Nor  did  the  White  Penitents  fare  better  at  Rome :  Pope 
Boniface  would  have  none  of  them  ;  he  condemned  their  pro- 
cessions, imprisoned  their  leader,  and  put  an  end  to  the  sect.^ 
Thus  in  universal  sorrow,  in  the  midst  of  profound  trouble 
both  in  Church  and  State,  closed  the  fourteenth  century. 

It  was,  as  Frederic  Barbarossa  had  said,  the  special  function 
of  the  Emperor  to  put  an  end  to  the  Schism  ;  but  now,  to 
complete  the  confusion  in  Christendom,  the  Schism  in  the 
Holy  Roman  Church  was  followed  by  a  Schism  in  the  Holy 
Roman  Empire.  During  the  first  eleven  years  of  his  reign 
King  Wenzel  had  conducted  himself  not  without  energy;  but 
from  the  year  1389  onwards  he  had  neglected  the  interests  of 
the  Empire,  had  shut  himself  up  in  Bohemia  with  low-born 
favourites,  and  had  excited  universal  discontent  and  distrust. 
Schemes  for  his  abdication  were  discussed  ;  he  himself  talked 
of  placing  a  regent  over  the  Empire.  His  quarrel  with  the 
Archbishop  of  Prague,  his  disgraceful  treatment  of  that  digni- 
tary, his  murder  of  the  General  Vicar  Johann  von  Fomuk 
(1393),  sent  a  thrill  of  horror  through  the  Empire ;  his 
creation  of  Milan  into  a  Duchy,  and  his  raising  Gian  Galeazzo 
to  be  hereditary  Duke  of  Milan  and  a  Prince  of  the  Empire, 
offended  the  Electors,  who  were  not  consulted,  and  who 
received  no  part  of  the  200,000  golden  gulden  paid  by  the  wily 
Italian  (1395).  The  subservient  approach  of  King  Wenzel  to 
the  French  court,  and  his  dallying  with  their  proposal  for  the 
abdication  of  both  Popes,  further  aroused  the  utmost  opposi- 
tion in  West  Germany,  Jlupert  the  Second,  the  father  of 
'  Brieger,  ix.  244.  ■^  Mur.  xix.  919  ;  Tartini,  ii.  408,  424. 


196     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

Clem,  wrote  a  long  letter  of  expostulation^  to  dissuade  the 
King  from  his  projected  journey  ;  but  he  died  on  the  6th 
January  1398,  before  the  meeting  at  Reims.  Rupert  the 
First  and  Rupert  the  Third  (Clem)  both  bound  themselves  to 
King  Richard  of  England  and  became  his  liegemen  and  pen- 
sioners :  so,  too,  did  Frederic,  Archbishop  of  Cologne ;  and 
their  example  was  followed  by  many  other  lesser  nobles. 
These  were  acts  of  undisguised  hostility  to  King  Wenzel. 
John  of  Nassau,  the  new  Archbishop  of  Mainz,  was  also  his 
open  and  bitter  foe,  and  took  the  opportunity  to  knit  himself  in 
alliance  with  the  Count  Palatine,  with  the  Bishops  of  Bamberg 
and  Eichstadt,  with  the  Burggraf  of  Nuernberg,  the  Markgraf 
of  Meissen,  the  Count  of  Henneberg,  and  also  with  the  cities  of 
Nuernberg,  Rotenburg,  Windesheim,  and  Weissenburg.^ 

The  clouds  were  gathering  thick  over  WenzeFs  head, 
and  his  projects  to  strengthen  his  own  party  came  invari- 
ably to  disastrous  issue.  His  attempts  to  exact  an  excessive 
grant  from  Rotenburg,  to  back  up  the  citizens  of  Wuerzburg 
against  their  bishop,  to  increase  the  number  of  the  imperial 
cities  in  Franconia  to  the  prejudice  of  the  nobility,  were  all 
alike  failures.  The  four  Electors  of  West  Germany  and  the 
Elector  of  Saxony  resolved  to  take  action.  They  proceeded 
warily,  but  they  had  chosen  the  time  for  their  conspiracy 
badly.  Wenzel  was  in  one  of  his  moods  of  comparative 
political  activity.  He  had  sent  messengers  to  the  Kings  of 
Poland,  Hungary,  and  the  Scandinavian  kingdoms  to  meet  him 
in  order  to  discuss  the  state  of  Christendom  ;  he  intended  to 
assemble  a  great  congress  of  kings  and  princes  from  Germany 
and  other  countries,  in  order,  if  possible,  to  put  an  end  to  the 
Schism  in  the  Church.^  Notwithstanding  his  meeting  with 
the  French  King  at  Reims,  there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that 
Wenzel  had  abandoned  the  side  of  the  Pope  at  Rome.  The 
cardinals  there  had  informed  the  Pope  of  the  machinations 
of  the  Electors,  and  Boniface  had  declared  himself  ready  to 
shed  his  blood  for  Wenzel,  whom  he  urged  again  to  undertake 
the  journey  to  Rome:  the  King  of  the  Romans  was  still,  to 
all  appearances,  on  the  side  of  the  Pope  at  Rome.  Such  was 
the  state  of  affairs  when  the  Electors  met  in  conference  at 
'  Hoefler,  133.  «  /^/^,  13^^  3  /^/,/,  160, 


THE  WAY  OF  CESSION  197 

Frankfurt  on  the  2(jth  May  1400.  At  this  point  the  Elector 
of  Saxony  parted  company  from  the  others ;  he  was  not  pre- 
pared to  give  his  vote  for  the  new  King  whom  tliey  desired. 
The  other  four  Electors  summoned  King  Wenzel  to  appear  at 
Oberhvhnstein  on  the  11th  August,  there  to  make  answer  for 
his  nonfeasances  and  his  misfeasances  ;  they  sent  copies  of  this 
summons  to  the  Electors  of  Saxony  and  Brandenburg  (Jost  of 
Moravia) ;  the  latter  sent  no  answer ;  the  former  replied  that  if 
he  did  not  personally  appear,  the  other  Electors  were  to  proceed 
in  his  absence,  observing  their  oath  to  the  Holy  Roman  Empire. 
The  ostensible  reasons  which  the  Electors  alleged  for  King 
Wenzel's  deposition  will  hardly  bear  close  examination.  He 
was  accused  of  doing  nothing  to  end  the  Schism,  and  it 
was  true  that  he  had  never  gone  to  Rome  to  be  crowned, 
and  had  omitted  thereby  thus  to  strengthen  the  hands  of 
Pope  Boniface,  but  he  had  met  the  King  of  France  and 
had  taken  measures  for  a  general  congress  of  kings  and 
princes.  He  was  accused  of  betraying  the  interests  of  the 
Empire  in  his  dealings  with  Milan  and  Brabant;  but  in 
raising  Gian  Galeazzo  to  the  Dukedom  of  Milan  he  had 
only  followed  the  precedent  set  by  Louis  of  Bavaria  with 
Castruccio  Castraccani  at  Lucca,  he  had  recognised  an 
existing  fact,  and  his  real  sin  was  that  he  had  not  shared 
with  the  Electors  the  bribe  paid  by  the  Duke ;  while  in 
Brabant,  the  resolution  of  its  Duchess  Joanna  to  leave  her 
lands  to  her  niece  Margaret,  and  her  husband  Duke  Anthony 
of  Burgundy,  affected  King  Wenzel  and  the  house  of  Luxem- 
burg rather  than  the  Empire.  Wenzel  was  further  charged 
with  failing  to  stop  the  grievous  robberies  and  the  internal 
war  which  desolated  Germany,  an  accusation  which  came  with 
singularly  bad  grace  from  the  Archbishop  of  Mainz,  who  had 
failed  to  prevent  the  imprisonment  of  an  Elector  and  the 
slaughter  of  a  Duke  by  his  own  people,  immediately  after 
the  Conference  at  Frankfurt.  Other  allegations  were  made 
against  Wenzel,  which  affected  him  only  as  King  of  Bohemia 
and  gave  no  ground  for  interference  with  him,  or  for  criticism  of 
him  as  head  of  the  Empire.  His  real  cause  of  offence  was  the 
attempt  to  create  among  the  great  cities  a  party  favourable 
to  himself  and  hostile  to  the  Electors  and  nobles  of  Germany. 


198     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

The  four  Electors  of  West  Germany  had,  in  fact,  ah-eady 
prejudged  and  precondemned   Wenzel ;  their  calling  on  him 
to  appear  and  answer  at  Oberlahnstein  was  a  mere  solemn 
farce;  the   choice  of  a    new  King   might  indeed    have   been 
made  earlier,  had   it    not   been    for  the  Elector  of  Saxony, 
who  acted  to  a  certain  point  with  the  other  four,  but  who 
favoured  the  candidature  of  Frederic  of  Brunswick.     As  this 
Elector,  with  Frederic  and  others,  were  on  their  way  home  after 
the  Conference  at  Frankfurt,  they  were  suddenly  attacked  near 
Fritzlar  by  an  armed  band  under  Count  Henry  of  Waldeck, 
and  Frederic  and  several  of  his  companions  were  killed,  while 
the   Elector   and    others    were   taken    prisoners.      This    foul 
murder  inaugurated  the  choice  of  a  new  King.     The  Arch- 
bishop of  Mainz  solemnly  denied  all  complicity  in  the  bloody 
deed,  but  Henry  of  Waldeck  was  the  husband  of  the  arch- 
bishop's sister,  Joanna  of  Nassau,^  and  the  assassins  were  the 
archbishops    men.       On    the    20th    August    1400,    the    four 
Electors  at  Oberlahnstein  declared  King  Wenzel  deposed ;  on 
the  next  day  the  three  archbishops,  John  of  Nassau  of  Mainz, 
to  whom  the  Count  Palatine  had  entrusted  his  vote,  the  half- 
idiotic  Archbishop  of  Trier,  and  Frederic  of  Cologne,  crossed 
the  Rhine,  and  at  the  Koenigstuhl  at  Reuse  they  proclaimed 
the  Count  Palatine   Rupert  the  Third  (nicknamed  Clem)  to 
be   henceforth   King  of  the   Romans.      They  had  previously 
communicated  with  Pope  Boniface,  but  he  had  returned  no 
decisive   answer;    he   knew,   and   was  justifiably  angry   with 
Wenzel  for  entertaining  the  proposition  of  his  deposition,  but 
he  did  not  dare  to  take  a  step  which  would  infallibly  lose  to 
his  obedience  the  three  large  kingdoms  of  Hungary,  Poland, 
and  Bohemia.     The  action  of  the  archbishops  produced  the 
Schism  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire;  and  with  this  Schism  an 
accomplished  fact,  witii  the  rival  Popes  refusing  to  meet  or  to 
entertain  seriously  any  project  for  ending  the  disunion  of  the 
Church,  with  the  two  bodies  of  their  cardinals  similarly  each 
profoundly  distrustful  of  the  other,  there  seemed  but  little 
hope  of  a  speedy  end  to  the  Great  Schism. 

Rupert,  who  had  thus  been  proclaimed  King  of  the  Romans 
by  the  three  Archbishops  of  the  Rhine  and  by  his  own  vote , 
1  Huebner,  tab,  255. 


THE  WAY  OF  CESSION  199 

was  one  of  the  best  intentioned  and  most  ineffective  kings  who 
had  ever  been  called  to  rule  that  troublous  Empire.     From 
the  date  of  his  election  it  was  at  once  his  fault  and  his  fate 
never  to  accomplish   thoroughly  any  great  project  which  he 
undertook.     The  first  task  which  lay  before  him  was  to  make 
himself  undisputably  the  sole  King  in  Germany.     He  could 
not  get  himself  crowned  at  Aachen  ;  the  ceremony  was  per- 
formed at  Cologne.     In   1401  he  started  to  subdue  Wenzel ; 
all  appearances  favoured  his  success,  but  he  allowed  a  war  of 
weapons  to  degenerate  into  a  war  of  parchments ;  he  entered 
into  negotiations  with  his  adversary,  frittered  away  the  time 
uselessly,  failed  to  gain  his  end,  and  left  Wenzel  to  be  a  thorn 
in  his  side  and  the  centre  of  discontent   for  the  rest  of  his 
reign.     This  fatal  mistake,  this  neglect  to  appeal  in  ancient 
fashion  to  the  God  of  Battle,  meant  that  Rupert  was  acknow- 
ledged as  King  only  over  the  western  half  of  the  Empire,  and 
that  there  was  henceforth  to  be  a  Schism  in  the  State  in  addi- 
tion to  the  Schism  in  the  Church.     The  one  Schism  intensified 
the  other  ;  it  was  the  duty  of  the  Emperor  of  the  Holy  Roman 
Empire  to  heal  the  Schism   in   the  Church ;  but  so   long  as 
there  were  two  Kings  of  the  Romans,  it  was  impossible  that 
the  Schism  could  be  healed  in  orthodox  fashion.     Some  feeble 
attempts  he  did  make  in  the  first  year  of  his  reign.     A  Diet 
was  held  at  Metz,  at  which  it  was  proposed  that  Pope  Boni- 
face should  be  universally  recognised,  and  should  then  hold  a 
council  ;  failing  which,  the  King  of  the  Romans  was  to  call  a 
council.^      A    Diet    was    also  held  at   Nuernberg,  at  which, 
according  to  Simon  de  Cramaud,  it  was  proposed  that  a  third 
Pope  should  be  elected  by  the  cardinals  of  both  obediences,  a 
suggestion  which  was  not  very  likely  to  find  favour  with  the 
new  King  of  the  Romans.^     As  a  matter  of  fact,  Rupert  was 
unable   to  do   anything   towards  healing  the   Schism   in   the 
Church  until  he  had  first  made  his  own  position  secure.     It 
was  a  case  of  '  Physician,  heal  thyself."" 

The  Schism  in  the  Empire  naturally  marked,  if  it  did  not 

intensify,  the   divergence  of  parties    through    Europe.     The 

upstart  King  Rupert  at  once  allied  himself  with  the  upstart 

King  of  England,  Henry  of  Lancaster,  and  sought  the  hand  of 

1  Hoefler,  204.  -  Ehrle,  vii.  156. 


200     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

Henry's  daughter  Blanche,  for  his  son  Louis.  In  France,  the 
side  of  the  new  King  was  naturally  embraced  by  the  Queen, 
Isabel  of  Bavaria,  daughter  of  Duke  Stephen  of  Bavaria, 
belonging  to  the  younger  branch  of  the  Wittelsbach  family ; 
the  Dukes  of  Burgundy  and  Berri  sided  with  the  Queen,  and 
the  Dukes  of  Orleans  and  Bourbon  were  against  them ;  the 
sympathies  of  Charles,  when  he  was  sane,  were  probably  with 
his  bi'other.^  In  Spain  the  King  of  Castile  remained  faithful 
to  Wenzel,  but  the  King  of  Aragon  sided  with  Rupert.  The 
Dukes  of  Austria  embraced  the  cause  of  the  new  King.  In 
Italy  the  divergence  was  very  marked.  Florence  and  Lucca 
lost  no  time  in  proclaiming  their  allegiance  to  Rupert ;  so,  too, 
did  the  Lord  of  Padua;  but  Francesco  of  Gonzaga  and 
Nicolas  of  Este  remained  true  to  Wenzel.  Everything  in 
Northern  Italy  was  preparing  for  the  forthcoming  duel 
between  Rupert,  King  of  the  Romans,  and  Gian  Galeazzo, 
Duke  of  Milan. 

It  was  with  some  reason  that  Rupert  deemed  the  conquest 
of  Milan  and  the  journey  to  Rome  to  be  more  important  than 
the  mere  defeat  of  Wenzel.  If  he  were  recognised  in  Italy,  if 
he  ousted  Gian  Galeazzo  from  Milan,  and  thus  established  the 
supremacy  of  the  Empire  over  Lombardy,  if  he  returned  home 
from  Rome  crowned  with  the  golden  crown  of  empire,  re- 
cognised through  Christendom  as  the  Emperor  of  the  Holy 
Roman  Empire,  then  the  validity  of  his  election  would  never 
more  be  questioned,  a  fatal  blow  would  be  dealt  to  the  house 
of  Luxemburg,  the  indolent  and  apathetic  Wenzel  would  be 
quashed,  and  Rupert  would  be  free  to  undertake  the  reforma- 
tion of  the  Church. 2  Italy,  that  country  so  fatal  to  German 
Emperors,  beckoned  him  onward.  He  arranged  for  an  army 
of  20,000  cavaliers,  with  their  attendant  squires  and  with  foot 
soldiers,  to  meet  him  at  Augsburg  on  the  Virgin's  Birthday 
(8th  September  1401).  Unfortunately,  it  was  always  easier 
for  a  German  King  to  get  men  than  to  provide  money ;  and 
for  a  King  who  meant  to  reign  righteously,  for  a  King  who 
already  had  an  army  in  the  field  under  his  son  on  the  Bohemian 
frontier,  for  a  King  whose  patrimony  was  relatively  small,  the 
difficulty  was  overwhelming.  The  Florentines  did  not  provide 
'  Jarry,  246.  ^  Hoefler,  232. 


THE  WAY  OF  CESSION  201 

all  the  funds  expected,  and  the  King  was  obliged  to  disband 
one-quarter  of  his  army  forthwith.  With  the  remainder  he 
marched  in  the  late  autumn  days  to  Trient,  and  thence  his 
troops  pressed  on  to  Brescia  ;  by  this  time,  however,  the  army 
was  less  than  one-third  its  original  strength.  A  party  in 
Brescia,  traitors  to  the  Duke  of  Milan,  had  promised  to 
surrender  the  town  to  the  King,  but  their  treachery  was 
discovered.  The  Duke  meantime  had  taken  into  his  pay 
the  most  famous  condottiere  generals  in  Italy,  Alberigo  da 
Barbiano,  Jacopo  del  Verme,  and  others.  King  Rupert,  who 
had  scarcely  marched  a  single  march  with  his  army,  was 
still  behind  in  Trient.  Francesco  of  Carrara  was  in  command 
of  the  Imperial  troops  ;  he  divided  his  army  into  four  parts, 
under  the  Count  Palatine  Louis,  Duke  Leopold  of  Austria,  the 
Burggraf  of  Nuernberg,  and  his  own  son  Jacopo  :  the  entire 
army,  horse  and  foot,  was  only  32,000  strong.  The  ducal 
troops  were  commanded  by  Facino  Cane.  The  fight  outside 
Brescia,  on  the  21st  October  1401,  was  soon  decided  :  the 
German  horse  were  heavily  bitted,  fit  only  for  the  heavy, 
lumbering  charge ;  while  the  Italians  were  much  lighter  in 
hand,  easy  to  turn  and  wheel,  and  deft  at  manoeuvre.  The 
Burggraf  of  Nuernberg  charged  the  Markgraf  of  Montferrat, 
who  dragged  him  from  his  saddle;  and  when  the  Germans 
dismounted  to  help  their  leader,  the  Markgraf,  who  had  broken 
his  lance,  charged  among  them  sword  in  hand.  They  fell  into 
confusion,  and  Carrara  ordered  the  Austrians  to  their  assist- 
ance. Carlo  Malatesta,  however,  charged  Leopold  of  Austria, 
and  tore  him  from  his  saddle  ;  the  Duke  was  surrounded  and 
hurried  oft'  to  Brescia.  The  Germans,  now  bereft  of  their 
leaders,  would  have  fled  from  the  field  had  not  Jacopo  of 
Carrara  come  to  their  aid  :  he  saved  the  remnant,  but  the  day 
was  lost.  Three  davs  later,  Leopold  of  Austria,  with  the  German 
prisoners,  appeared  in  Ruperfs  camp,  and  by  every  one  except 
the  King  his  release  was  attributed  to  his  treachery  ;  Francesco 
of  Carrara  declared  that  he  had  received  a  written  warning 
that  the  Duke  meant  to  deliver  him  and  his  son  into  the 
hands  of  Gian  Galeazzo.  Leopold  and  the  Archbishop  of 
Cologne  declined  to  fight  further  against  the  Italians  and 
marched  home  with  their  troops. 


202     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

The  campaign  was  indeed  at  an  end.  Rupert  was  no  general, 
he  was  no  warrior;  men  said  that  he  was  timid;  he  loved  negotia- 
tion better  than  fighting;  he  was  more  at  home  with  men  of  learn- 
ing tlian  in  the  tented  field.  His  army  had  wellnigh  dwindled 
away  ;  its  commander-in-chief  had  escaped  to  Padua,  and  thither 
the  King  followed  him.  At  Padua  Rupert  was  welcomed  with 
all  the  honour  due  to  the  Emperor  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire  ; 
but  when  he  went  on  to  Venice,  the  Doge  seated  himself  close 
to  tlie  King's  throne.  Rupert  was  loth  to  give  up  his  schemes 
to  humble  the  Duke  of  Milan  and  to  be  crowned  at  Rome ;  he 
tarried  on  through  the  weary  winter  months,  bargaining  and 
negotiating ;  Gian  Galeazzo  laughed  him  to  scorn ;  the  Pope 
was  afraid  to  crown  him  and  proposed  impossible  conditions ; 
the  Florentines  complained  that  he  had  not  fulfilled  his 
contract,  and  haggled  with  him  like  merchants  with  a  corporal 
of  mercenaries.  Finally  the  King  lost  heart  and  temper, 
borrowed  12,000  ducats  from  the  Venetians,  and  in  April  1402 
betook  himself  back  to  Germany  again,  dishonoured,  poverty- 
stricken,  and  without  the  golden  crown  which  he  had  set  out 
to  win.  He  was  the  laughing-stock  of  Germany  and  Italy ; 
men  joked  him  for  his  empty  pockets  as  they  joked  his  son-in- 
law  years  later  ;  they  sang  : — 

'  Der  Goggelman  ist  komeii  an, 
Er  hat  eine  leere  Tasche  an.' 

His  expedition  to  Italy  was  a  still  more  dismal  failure  than 
had  been  the  expedition  against  Bohemia.  He  reached 
Munich  on  the  2nd  May  1402. 

The  next  eighteen  months,  however,  witnessed  a  striking 
revolution  in  Fortune's  wheel.  The  dreaded  Duke  of  Milan 
died,  and  his  dominions  were  divided;  all  unity  of  purpose 
ceased ;  Gian  Galeazzo  and  the  power  of  Milan  were  no  longer 
an  object  of  dread  to  King  and  to  Pope.  Then  again  the 
relation  of  Bohemia  and  Hungary  to  the  papacy  had  altered. 
Wenzel  was  in  prison,  guarded  by  the  Archdukes  of  Austria  ; 
Sigismund,  ruler  of  both  Bohemia  and  Hungary,  was  threatened 
by  Ladislas  of  Naples,  who  was  crowned  King  of  Hungary  in 
Zara,  and  whose  expedition  Pope  Boniface  had  blessed  and 
promoted.    King  Sigismund,  in  revenge,  withdrew  the  kingdoms 


THE  WAY  OF  CESSION  20^ 

of  Hungary  and  Bohemia  from  their  obedience  to  the  Pope  at 
Rome,  and  forbade  the  sending  of  any  revenues  thence  to  the 
papal  treasury.  The  Pope  had  thus  lost  the  obedience  of 
these  large  and  important  kingdoms.  There  was  still  another 
consideration  which  weighed  with  him.  Rupert,  the  rival 
King  of  the  Romans,  was  himself  endeavouring  to  contract  a 
matrimonial  alliance  with  King  Martin  of  Aragon,  the  most 
devoted  adherent  of  Pope  Benedict ;  and  this  same  King  was 
moreover  in  communication  with  the  court  of  France,  the 
determined  advocates  of  the  union.  It  seemed  as  if  King 
Rupert  were  also  likely  to  slip  away  from  obedience  to  Rome, 
and  Pope  Boniface  resolved  to  lose  no  further  time  in  binding 
him  to  his  cause.  On  the  1st  October  1403  he  held  a  Con- 
sistory, confirmed  the  election  of  Rupert  as  King  of  the 
Romans,  and  pronounced  Wenzel  to  be  deposed.  The  decision, 
thus  irrevocably  taken,  had  the  effect  of  riveting  Rupert,  as 
Ladislas  had  already  been  bound,  to  the  side  of  the  Pope  at 
Rome,  and  of  setting  in  opposition  Wenzel  of  Bohemia  and 
Sigismund  of  Hungary.  For  good  or  for  evil  the  die  was  now 
cast. 

Meantime  in  France  the  feeling  in  favour  of  restitution  of 
obedience  to  Pope  Benedict  the  Tliirteenth  had  been  steadily 
gathering  strength.  It  was  desired  on  all  hands  that  a 
general  council  of  his  obedience  should  be  held.  The  one 
party  held  that,  before  this  could  be  done,  it  was  necessary  to 
restore  the  spiritual  allegiance  of  the  kingdom  to  the  Pope  in 
order  that  he  might  himself  convoke  the  council  ;  the  opposite 
party  held  that  this  was  not  necessary,  that  the  King  and 
not  the  Pope  was  the  protector  of  the  Gallican  Church. 
The  University  of  Orleans,  then  that  of  Toulouse,  then  those 
of  Angers  and  Montpellier,  expressed  themselves  in  favour 
of  the  restitution  of  obedience.  The  Provencals  in  May 
1401  followed  the  example  of  the  Bretons  in  returning  to 
their  spiritual  allegiance.  On  the  4th  March  1402  the 
Bishop  of  Saint-Pons,  on  the  15th  April  the  Bishop  of 
Zamorra,  spoke  long  and  earnestly  in  presence  of  the  King 
and  the  royal  princes  in  defence  of  the  Pope  at  Avignon. 

Early  in  1403  the  King  of  Castile  declared  that  to  avoid 
insurrection  he  had  restored  the  obedience  of  his  country  to 


204     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

the  Tope.  The  Duke  of  Orleans  sustained  the  cause  of  the 
captive  Pope  at  every  opportunity  ;  his  threats  to  interfere 
forcibly  for  his  release  brought  him  and  the  Duke  of  Berri 
into  violent  altercation  and  defiance.  King  Charles  himself 
declared  his  readiness  to  succour  and  aid  '  our  Holy  Father/ 

The  University  of  Toulouse  had  addressed  a  letter  to  the 
King.  They  had  never  agreed  to  the  subtraction  of  obedience  ; 
and  if  their  communication  did  not  contain  much  that  was 
new  in  the  way  of  argument,  it  put  tlie  case  for  Benedict 
very  forcibly  and  plainly.  Unfortunately,  they  allowed  their 
animosity  and  jealousy  toward  their  elder  sister,  the  University 
of  Paris,  to  appear  too  clearly.  This  set  the  extreme 
members  against  them ;  but  the  more  moderate  party  in  the 
University  adopted  a  more  temperate  tone.  The  Chancellor, 
Jean  Gerson,  had  lived  for  four  years  in  Flanders,  as  Dean  of 
Bruges,  under  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  and  had  there  been 
brought  into  personal  contact  with  the  men  of  both  obediences. 
A  man  of  an  eminently  politic  and  moderate  mind,  he  had 
recognised  that  there  was  good  faith  on  both  sides,  that  a 
man  might  acknowledge  the  obedience  of  Pope  Boniface  and 
might  yet  sincerely  desire  the  welfare  and  unity  of  the  Church. 
Gerson  pointed  out  that  it  was  unreasonable  to  dub  as  heretics 
every  one  who  was  of  a  different  mind  on  a  question  as  to 
which  there  might  clearly  be  two  contradictory  conscientious 
opinions,  and  that  the  preferable  method  was  for  the  men  of 
both  obediences  to  work  together  for  the  cession  of  both 
Popes  and  the  unity  of  the  Church  ;  men  on  both  sides  desired 
to  render  their  obedience  to  the  one  true  Pope  if  they 
could  only  be  assured  who  was  the  real  head  of  the  Church  ; 
and  it  was  only  through  the  united  working  of  both 
parties  that  doubt  could  be  resolved  and  concord  assured.^ 
Nicolas  de  Clamanges  and  the  tutor  of  the  Dauphin  also 
wrote  in  favour  of  the  restitution  of  obedience  to  Pope 
Benedict.  Louis,  Duke  of  Anjou,  who,  after  losing  Naples 
and  Tarentum,  had  returned  to  PVance  in  1399,  formally 
replaced  Provence  and  his  other  dominions,  on  the  30th 
August  1402,  under  the  obedience  of  Benedict,  and  was  paid 
for  the   restitution,   much   to  the  anger  and  disgust  of  the 

'  Schwab,  155. 


THE  WAV  OF  CESSION  205 

Dukes    of    Beni    and    Burgundy.      The    Carthusian    monks 
returned  to  their  spiritual  allegiance. 

The  first-fruits  of  the  subtraction  of  obedience  had  been  to 
expose  the  Church  to  the  power  of  the  secular  arni.^  It  reduced 
the  consenting  cardinals  to  sue  to  the  princes  for  support ;  it  de- 
prived the  lower  ranks  of  the  clergy  of  their  right  of  appeal 
against  the  exactions  of  their  superiors ;  the  Galilean  Church 
found  that  the  King's  yoke  was  heavier  on  them  than  that  of  the 
Pope ;  the  University  of  Paris  was  dissatisfied,  for  the  ordinaries 
used  their  rights  of  collation  not  to  provide  for  its  candidates, 
but  to  promote  their  own  servants  and  friends.  The  University 
called  for  a  council  of  the  Clementine  obedience,  part  demand- 
ing that  Benedict  should  again  be  recognised  and  should 
preside,  part  desirous  that  he  should  appear  before  it  as  an 
accused  person,  Gerson  and  his  followers  steering  a  middle 
course.  The  subtraction  of  obedience  had  caused  a  schism  in 
every  province,  in  every  diocese,  in  every  convent,  almost  in 
every  familv  of  the  kingdom.  It  was  recognised  as  a  fruitless 
and  selfish  policy. 

Pope  Benedict  determined  to  escape  from  his  fortress 
prison.  Some  coping-stones  wei'e  removed  from  a  bricked-up 
wall  on  the  north  of  the  palace.  Passing  through  the 
aperture,  with  his  doctor  and  two  others,  the  Pope  found  the 
Constable  of  Aragon  and  three  men  awaiting  him  ;  they  had 
no  difficulty  in  eluding  the  sentries,  and  conducted  the  Pope 
for  the  night  to  the  house  where  lodged  the  Aragonese  embassy. 
In  the  early  morning,  as  soon  as  the  gates  of  the  city  were 
opened,  Benedict,  muffled  in  the  cloak  of  a  servant  of  a  Norman 
cavalier,  Robert  de  Braquemont,^  made  his  way  to  the  river 
bank  where  a  boat,  sent  by  the  Cardinal  of  Pampeluna,  and 
manned  by  fourteen  strong  oarsmen,  awaited  him.  The 
Pope  had  collected  four  hundred  men-at-arms  who,  posted 
outside  ,Avignon,  awaited  his  escape.  The  boat  was  pulled 
down  the  Rhone  to  the  confluence  of  the  Durance,  then  up 
the  tributary  river  until  they  were  opposite  Chateau  Renard. 
Here  Benedict  got  out,  mounted  a  horse,  and  made  for  the 
little  castle  which,  with  its  two  round  towers,  stands  on  a 
clump  of  rock  cropping  up  from  the  flat  fields  around.  The 
1  Religieux,  ii.  688.  '•'  Ibid.  iii.  70. 


206     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

Pope  reached  the  castle  about  nine  in  the  morning  of  the 
12th  March,  the  Feast  of  Saint  Gregory,  and  here  on  the  soil 
of  Provence  he  was  a  free  man  again.  During  his  captivity 
he  had  let  his  beard  grow  until  it  was  two  palm-widths  in 
length  and  he  looked  like  the  patriarch  Abraham  ;  he  now 
had  it  taken  off  by  the  Duke's  barber,  a  Picard.  Benedict 
laughed  heartily  when  he  was  again  beardless  as  a  Roman 
priest  should  be :  'I  see,'  said  he,  '  that  the  Normans  are 
alway  liars,  for  they  swore  they  would  shave  my  beard  for 
me,  and  now  it  has  been  done  by  a  Picard.'  On  the  29th 
April  the  College  of  Cardinals,  five  of  those  who  had 
originally  revolted  from  him  being  dead  and  three  absent  at 
Paris,  knelt  before  him  with  tears  in  their  eyes  and  promised 
him  faithful  obedience  for  the  rest  of  their  lives ;  ^  and  a 
treaty  was  made  at  the  Chateau.  In  this  treaty  Benedict 
said  not  a  word  of  abdication ;  he  did  not  confirm  the  promise 
which  he  had  made  during  his  captivity,  to  abdicate  if  his 
rival  died,  abdicated,  or  was  ejected  ;  he  merely  adopted  a 
suggestion,  which  had  been  supported  by  his  friend  Pierre 
d'Ailly  in  1401  and  by  the  Cardinal  of  Palestrina  in  1402,  to 
convoke  a  council  of  his  obedience,  without  pledging  himself 
to  the  time  or  place  of  convocation,  in  order  to  take  measures 
in  concert  with  the  cardinals,  prelates,  and  other  notable  and 
faithful  men  for  the  union  and  good  governance  of  Holy 
Mother  Church.^  It  was  clear  that  he  regarded  everything 
done  during  his  captivity  as  done  under  duress  and  as  void, 
that  he  looked  upon  himself  as  being  by  his  escape  placed  on 
the  same  footing  as  he  was  on  before  the  siege  of  Avignon 
began.  For  the  Head  of  the  Church  to  be  kept  in  confine- 
ment was  inconsistent  with  his  right  and  his  duty.  Benedict 
regarded  himself  as  having  fought  a  hard  fight  and  having 
won  it,  and  as  being  entitled  therefore  to  take  advantage  of 
his  victorious  position.  The  cardinals  sent  two  of  their 
number  to  the  King  of  France  to  acquaint  him  with  what 
had  happened,  and  to  urge  him  to  restore  to  Benedict  the 
obedience  of  the  kingdom. 

The  news  of  the  escape  of  Pope  Benedict  was  received  at 
Paris  by  the  populace  with  joy ;  the  King  and  the  Dukes  were 
^  Religieux,  iii,  84.  ~  Ehrle,  v.  451  ;  vii.  161,  202. 


ClIATKAr    RENAKI). 


ckSITY 


; 


THE  WAY  OF  CESSION  207 

glad  of  any  solution  of  a  situation  which  had  become 
embarrassing.  Jean  Gerson  declared  that  it  was  tlie  part  of 
wise  men  to  accept  the  situation  ;  he  compared  the  escape  of 
the  Pope  to  Jonah  issuing  from  the  belly  of  the  whale.  The 
implacable  Norman  Doctors  of  the  University  of  Paris  were 
alone  dissatisfied.^  Pierre  d'Ailly  published  a  work  advising 
that  a  council  of  the  obedience  of  Benedict  be  called,  that  the 
honours  due  to  the  Pope  as  the  Head  of  the  Church  be 
restored  to  him,  but  not  those  recent  privileges  and  abuses 
which  Saint  Peter  and  his  followers  had  never  known.  The 
Duke  of  Orleans,  in  the  absence  of  the  King  and  of  the  Dukes 
of  Eerri  and  Burgundy,  took  matters  into  his  own  hands.  He 
ordered  the  Archbishops  then  in  Paris  secretly  to  collect  the 
votes  of  their  subordinates,  and  then  he  called  together  to  the 
Hotel  of  Saint  Paul,  on  the  28th  May  1403,  all  the  prelates 
then  in  the  capital.  As  soon  as  he  was  assured  that  those 
in  favour  of  the  restitution  of  obedience  were  in  the  majority, 
he  communicated  the  result  to  the  King.  Charles,  who  was 
now  in  his  sound  senses  again,  was  rejoiced  ;  on  that  same  day, 
with  his  hands  on  the  crucifix,  the  King  of  France  restored  to 
Pope  Benedict  the  spiritual  allegiance  of  his  kingdom,  and 
personally  promised  him  henceforth  obedience  inviolate  as  to 
the  V^icar  of  Jesus  Christ.  Pierre  d'Ailly  announced  that  the 
Pope  had  made  certain  concessions  to  the  Duke  which  were  to 
be  subsequently  ratified  by  a  papal  Bull ;  he  would  resign  if 
his  rival  died,  abdicated,  or  were  deposed;  and  he  would  call 
a  council  of  his  own  obedience  within  a  year.  On  this  under- 
standing obedience  was  restored  to  Pope  Benedict.  The 
Dukes  of  Berri  and  Burgundy,  who  returned  four  days  later, 
were  disgusted  ;  but  victory  lay  for  the  time  with  the  Duke 
of  Orleans,  The  royal  dukes,  no  less  than  the  extreme 
members  of  the  University  of  Paris,  were  obliged  to  agree  to 
the  restitution  of  obedience.  The  country  was  overwhelmed 
with  joy  at  the  escape  of  the  Pope,  and  re-entered  into  its 
spiritual  allegiance  amid  universal  contentment. 

The  conditions  for  which  the  Duke  of  Orleans  had  made  him- 
self responsible  had  still  to  be  published  by  papal  Bull.  He  met 
Pope  Benedict  on  the  8th  December  at  Tarascon.     The  result 

I  Bess,  39. 


208     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

of  their  conference  was  made  known  by  the  five  Bulls 
promulgated  on  the  8th  January  1404.  In  the  first  the  Pope 
annulled  all  that  he  had  written  against  the  '  way  of  cession,' 
and  invited  the  King  of  France  and  all  other  Christian  kings 
and  princes  to  work  for  the  union  of  the  Church,  while  at  the 
same  time  he  reserved  to  himself  the  right  of  choosing  that 
method  which  might  appear  to  him  to  be  the  most  useful  and 
expedient  for  that  end.^  The  second  Bull  confirmed  the  treaty 
which  he  had  made  with  the  cardinals  at  Chateau  Renard. 
The  third  renews  the  promise  to  convoke  a  council  of  his 
obedience,  without  naming  time  or  place  for  the  meeting.^ 
The  fourth  annulled  censures  incurred  during  the  subtraction 
of  obedience.  The  fifth  provided  that  in  the  coming  council 
there  should  be  no  renewed  question  as  to  subtraction.  The 
Pope  was  therefore  free  to  abdicate  or  not,  according  as  he 
considered  the  measure  appropriate  to  secure  the  union  of  the 
Church ;  and  the  council  which  he  had  promised  to  call  was  in 
no  way  to  attack  his  honour,  his  rights,  or  his  liberty.  He 
had  won  the  victory  all  along  the  line.  Nevertheless  the 
King  and  the  Duke  professed  themselves  fully  satisfied  with 
the  concessions  which  he  had  made.  He  lost  no  time  in 
showing  that  he  regarded  as  invalid  all  appointments  or 
promotions  made  during  his  five  years'  captivity  at  Avignon. 
The  attempt  to  end  the  Schism  by  the  subtraction  of  obedience 
had  been  made,  and  it  had  proved  a  total  failure.  Pope 
Benedict  had  been  averse  from  the  '  way  of  cession,'  and  had 
made  no  secret  of  his  aversion,  ever  since  it  had  first  been 
proposed,  and  nothing  had  since  happened  to  make  him 
change  his  opinion.  If,  therefore,  France  was  determined  still 
to  pursue  this  method,  she  knew  that  she  must  count  on  her 
own  Pope  as  its  most  sturdy  opponent. 

In  June  1404  the  full  and  formal  reconciliation  of  France 
with  Pope  Benedict  was  effected.  In  February  the  King  had 
written  expressing  his  sorrow  for  all  the  hardships  that  the 
Pope  had  suffered,  and  explaining  that  he  himself  had  been 
guiltless  in  the  matter ;  it  had  indeed  been  the  work  of  the 
recalcitrant  cardinals,  backed  up  by  the  Dukes  of  Berri  and 
Burgundy  and  the  extreme  party  in  the  University  of  Paris. 
'  Ehrle,  vii.  288.  "  Jarry,  449. 


THE  WAY  OF  CESSION  209 

Benedict  acknowledged  this,  and  on  the  13th  June  1404 
promised  that  he  would  be  'his  good,  true,  and  faithful 
spiritual  father  and  friend."  But  there  was  further  trouble 
in  the  near  future.  A  new  crisis  was  at  hand.  The  unholy 
alliance  between  Pope  and  King,  which  had  subsisted  during 
the  pontificate  of  Clement  the  Seventh  to  the  detriment  of 
the  Church,  had  been  broken  by  the  reluctance  of  Benedict  to 
adopt  the  '  way  of  cession " ;  the  King  had  thrown  over  the 
Pope  and  had  united  himself  with  the  Church ;  the  Galilean 
Church  had  gained  its  freedom  from  the  Pope,  but  only  to 
fall  under  the  more  intolerable  yoke  of  the  crown.  Disunion 
and  jealousy  among  the  clergy,  the  want  of  any  consistent 
leadership  at  court,  the  noble  endurance  by  Benedict  of  the 
tribulation  to  which  he  had  been  subjected,  had  brought  about 
a  revulsion  of  feeling  and  a  restitution  of  obedience.  The  Duke 
of  Orleans  had  guaranteed  more  than  he  was  in  a  position  to 
fulfil;  but  the  demand  for  a  general  council,  to  which  the 
Pope  had  promised  to  accede,  had  gained  strength  and  was 
becoming  imperative  among  all  classes  in  France.^  Pope 
Benedict  the  Thirteenth,  however,  still  believed  in  the  '  way 
of  convention'  as  the  sovereign  cure  for  the  disruption  of 
the  Church. 

^  Kehrmann,  loi. 


210     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 


CHAPTER   VI 

BOI.OGNA 

In  his  government  of  the  Church,  Pope  Boniface  the  Ninth 

was  eminently  a  strong  man  who   had  no   liking  for  being 

hampered  by  a  too  numerous  college  of  cardinals.     Cardinals, 

moreover,  were  costly  luxuries ;  it  was  easier  not  to  have  to 

provide   for   them    than   to   refuse  them   their  share    of  the 

Church  revenues ;  and  the  courteous  simoniac  may  have  been 

influenced  by  the  reflection   that  the   fewer  cardinals  there 

were,  the  more  spoils  would  accrue  to   his  brothers  and   to 

that   omnium   mulierum    avarissima^   his    mother.^      Be    the 

reason  what  it  may,  he  reversed  the  policy  of  his  predecessor 

in    the    creation    of   cardinals.       Of  the    thirteen    who    had 

elected  him  in  1389,  only  five  remained  alive  at  the  Jubilee 

of  1400.     To  replace  the  eight  who  had  died,  Boniface  only 

raised  four  new  priests   to  the  college,  although  he   had  to 

give  hats  to  two  cardinals  who  deserted  from  Urban.     The 

four  cardinals,  raised  to  the  purple  at  the  first  creation  by 

Boniface,    were    all    men    of    mark.       They    were    Henricus 

Minultulus,  who  was  constantly  employed  as  Papal  Legate ; 

Bartholomaeus    de   Uliarius,   who   was   especially    deputed   to 

Ladislas  of  Naples ;  Cosmato  de'  Megliorati,  afterwards  Pope 

Innocent   the    Seventh,    who    was    employed   as    ambassador 

between  Gian  Galeazzo  of  Milan  and  the  Republics  of  Florence 

and  Bologna;  and    Christophorus  Maro,  who  was  appointed 

umpire  between  Boniface  and  Paolo  Savelli  in  the  matter  of 

certain  towns  the  possession  of  which   was  in   dispute.^      Of 

these  four  the  second  died   in   1396,  but  no  new  creation  of 

cardinals  was  made  until  the  27th  February  1402.    The  Pope 

had  a  keen  eye  for  a  man  of  action,  and  could  hence  appre- 

1  De  Schismate,  140.  ^  Ciac  nius,  ii.  705  et  seq. 


BOLOGNA  211 

ciate  the  worth  of  his  young  fellow-countryman,  Haldassarc 
Cossa.  He  had  approved  himself  a  brave  soldier,  a  skilful 
sreneral,  and  a  shrewd  man  of  affairs.  He  was  a  man  after 
Boniface's  own  heart ;  there  were  indeed  many  points  of 
resemblance  in  their  characters.  In  the  new  creation,  there- 
fore, Baldassare  Cossa  became  cardinal-deacon,  being  made 
Cardinal  of  Saint  Eustachius.  In  January  of  the  next  year 
the  Pope  determined  to  utilise  his  military  virtue  by  deputing 
him  to  recover  Bologna;  he  made  him  Papal  Legate  of 
Bologna.  Niem,  jjiore  stio,  has  his  own  private  bit  of  scandal. 
He  says  that  one  reason  for  the  appointment  was  '  lit  ,sic 
cessaret  'mfamia^  (j7iam,  detinendo  in  concuhinam  dictam 
Catharinam^  in  Curia  prefuta  contraxit,  ipsagne  viai-itum 
fiuum,  tunc  morantem  NeapoU,  sefjueretur.''  ^  But,  then,  Niem 
himself  kept  a  concubine.'-  That  Baldassare  Cossa  was  a  man 
of  intelligence,  energy,  and  courage  is  certain ;  and  it  was 
luidoubtedly  his  worth  as  a  man  of  war,  as  a  man  of  resource 
and  action,  that  induced  Pope  Boniface  the  Ninth  to  appoint 
him  on  the  19th  January  1403  to  the  important  post  of 
Papal  Legate  at  Bologna. 

When  Cossa,  a  cardinal  of  not  yet  a  year's  standing,  was 
thus  appointed  by  Pope  Boniface  to  be  Legate  a  latejr  at 
Bologna,  that  city  had  fallen  before  the  might  of  Milan,  and 
the  Duke's  general,  Facino  Cane,  was  within  the  walls.  In 
proceeding  northward  therefore  to  take  command  of  the 
papal  troops,  the  first  task  of  the  new  Legate  was  to  win 
back  by  force  of  arms  the  city  and  territory  of  Bologna  to 
the  allegiance  of  the  Pope,  Matters  there  had  fallen  out  on 
this  wise. 

The  Visconti  had  been  the  rulers  of  Milan  since  the  end  of 
the  thirteenth  century.  Their  power  was  so  firmly  established, 
and  their  reputation  was  so  great,  that  they  had  been  able  to 
intermarry  with  the  royal  houses  of  France  and  England  and 
with  the  princes  of  Germany.  When  Duke  Galeazzo  the 
Second  died  in  1378,  he  left  his  dominions  to  be  divided 
between  his  brother  Bernabo  and  his  son  Gian  Galeazzo. 
Bernabo  tried  to  get  rid  of  his  nephew ;  he  entered  into 
several  plots  against  his  life  and  his  property ;  but  Gian 
1  Hardt,  ii.  346.  '•'  Erler,  34. 


212     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

Galeazzo  always  managed  to  detect  and  defeat  them,  although 
he  uniformly  simulated  ignorance  of  these  attempts.  In  per- 
fidy and  dissimulation  the  nephew  was  more  than  a  match 
for  the  uncle.  Gian  suddenly  became  devout,  surrounded 
himself  with  priests,  visited  churches,  rosary  in  hand,  spent 
hours  in  devotion  before  the  images  of  the  saints ;  and  being 
by  nature  a  coward,  doubled  his  bodyguard.  In  May  1385  he 
announced  that  he  was  going  to  pay  his  devotion  at  the 
shrine  of  the  Madonna  del  Monte  near  Varese,  a  town  not  far 
from  the  Lago  Maggiore  and  therefore  lying  within  the 
domain  of  his  uncle  Bernabo.  Gian  Galeazzo,  with  his 
strong  bodyguard  under  the  command  of  Jacopo  del  Verme 
and  Antonio  Porro,  approached  Milan  on  the  6th  May,  and 
was  met  by  Bernabo  and  his  two  sons.  The  uncle  and  nephew 
embraced  with  effusion,  clasping  each  other  tenderly ;  but 
Gian  gave  an  order  in  German  to  his  two  captains,  and  the 
soldiers  promptly  seized  their  three  noble  prisoners.  The 
farce  was  now  played  out :  Milan  opened  its  gates  to  Gian ; 
Bernabo  and  his  two  sons  were  imprisoned ;  and  on  the  18th 
December  1385  Bernabo  died,  leaving  his  nephew,  Gian 
Galeazzo,  sole  Lord  of  Lombardy. 

Gian  Galeazzo  now  set  himself  to  win  the  overlordship  of 
all  Italy.  Though  an  utter  stranger  to  courage  and  to 
honour,  his  ambition  was  unbounded  and  his  wealth  exceeded 
that  of  the  Emperor.  When  he  made  war,  he  took  into  his 
pay  the  best  condottiere  generals  of  the  time ;  when  he  made 
peace,  he  nominally  dismissed  the  generals  but  kept  them 
privately  on  half-pay,  on  condition  that  they  ravaged  only 
the  lands  of  his  enemies  and  left  his  own  untouched.  Both 
peace  and  war  were  thus  equally  advantageous  to  him  and 
disastrous  to  his  foes.  He  speedily  reduced  nearly  all 
Lombardy  to  his  sway.  Montferrat  and  Savoy  on  the  west 
maintained  their  independence  only  by  subservient  obedience 
to  his  behests  and  by  passively  following  his  standards.  He 
conquered  the  states  of  Padua  and  Verona,  so  that  in  1386 
the  vipers  on  his  blazonry  were  hoisted  on  the  Adriatic  and 
his  standards  floated  before  the  belfries  of  Venice.^  Subse- 
quently indeed  Franceso  of  Carrara,  the  young  Lord  of  Padua, 
after  a  series  of  adventures  more  various  and  romantic  than 
1  Sismondi  (/.  /i.),  v.  57. 


BOT.OGNA  21  a 

ever  befell  a  hero  of  fiction,  succeeded  in  recovering  the  city  of 
Padua,  but  his  power  remained  crippled,  while  that  of  Gian 
Galeazzo  was  practically  undiminished.  The  Lord  of  Milan 
then  turned  his  attention  to  the  centre  of  Italy.  Here 
Florence  barred  his  way ;  but  Perugia  and  Siena  surrendered, 
Pisa  was  betraved  to  him,  and  Mantua  made  terms.  Beside 
Florence,  Bologna  only  remained  hostile. 

Renowned  alike  for  her  wealth,  her  commerce,  and  her 
university,  on  which  at  times  she  spent  half  her  income,^ 
Bologna  in  the  thirteenth  century  ranked  second  only  to 
Florence  as  a  free  Guelf  republic ;  but  in  the  former  half  of 
the  fourteenth  century  she  had  sunk  under  the  dominion  of 
the  Pepoli,  one  of  her  own  families,  and  the  Pepoli  had  sold 
her  to  the  Visconti.  Pope  Clement  the  Sixth  in  1352  had 
confirmed  the  bargain  by  conceding  to  the  Dukes  of  Milan 
the  sovereignty  of  Bologna  for  ten  years.  The  Duke  put  in 
Giovanni  Visconti  of  Ollegio  to  govern  the  State ;  he  revolted 
and  reigned  as  an  independent  tyrant  until  he  was  forced  by 
the  exigencies  of  war  to  sell  Bologna  to  Cardinal  Albornoz ; 
and  in  this  way  the  Bolognese,  to  their  own  great  joy,  in  1360 
became  vassals  of  Holy  Church.  Sixteen  years  later,  however, 
when  Florence  by  reason  of  papal  misgovernment  raised  the 
standard  of  revolt,  Bologna  joined  the  league  and  shook  oW 
the  papal  yoke. 

The  Visconti  meantime  had  not  forgotten  their  own  claim 
or  design  on  the  State.  Bologna  was  now  again  a  free  re- 
public ;  and  in  those  days  a  free  republic  in  Italy  generally 
meant  government  by  faction.  Each  contending  faction 
might  be  patriotic,  as  at  Florence;  but  not  uncommonly 
one  faction  was  ready  to  barter  its  patriotism  for  gold. 
These  internal  squabbles  formed  muddy  political  waters,  in 
fishing  which  no  one  was  more  skilful  than  Gian  Galeazzo. 
He  fomented  party  disputes,  lielping  one  side  against  the 
other,  until  the  victor  was  himself  too  enfeebled  to  resist 
the  might  of  Milan,  This  was  what  now  happened  at 
Bologna.  It  had  always  been  a  fickle  and  turbulent  city. 
In  1380  the  people  expelled  the  officers  of  Pope  Urban, 
engraved  on  their  coins  the  standard  of  liberty,  and  received 
from  Pope  Clement  an  offer  of  political  independence  condi- 
'  Burckhardt,  2lo. 


214     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

tional  on  their  recognising  him  as  legitimate  Pope.  Bologna 
would  not  go  so  far  as  that.  In  1386  Clement  renewed  his 
oflPer.  Three  years  later  Bologna  again  revolted  from  Urban, 
declaring  herself  the  ally  of  France  and  planting  the  Jleur  de 
lis  on  her  walls.  A  group  of  scholars  made  their  way  to 
Avignon  and  promised  obedience  to  Clement.^  The  French 
Pope  recognised  the  political  independence  of  the  city  and 
her  rights  over  four  towns  adjoining.  But  it  was  the  aid  of 
the  PYench  King,  not  that  of  the  French  Pope,  that  the 
Bolognese  wanted,  for  they  feared  the  might  of  Milan.  They 
agreed  with  their  adversary  quickly.^ 

Fresh  plots  next  year  again  sent  Florence  and  Bologna  as 
suppliants  to  Charles  of  France,  who  promised  to  protect 
them  against  Gian  Galeazzo  if  they  would  recognise  Clement ; 
but  with  the  advent  of  Boniface  the  Ninth  a  new  spirit  had 
come  over  papal  politics ;  the  new  Pope  was  courteous  and 
conciliatory,  and  Bologna  and  Florence  stood  fast  in  their 
alliance  with  the  Pope  at  Rome.  In  1399  Nanne  Gozzadini 
was  at  the  head  of  the  ruling  faction,  that  of  the  '  Chess- 
men,' the  old  faction  of  the  Pepoli ;  on  the  22nd  April  he 
was  overpowered  and  exiled  by  the  opposite  faction  of  the 
Maltraversi ;  in  November  he  and  his  ally,  Giovanni  Benti- 
voglio,  were  recalled  to  power,  the  plague  having  swept 
away  their  rivals.  Shortly  after  this  Gozzadini  and  Benti- 
voglio  quarrelled;  the  former  associated  himself  with  the 
lower  classes,  the  latter  with  the  higher  and  with  the 
remnant  of  the  Maltraversi.  Throughout  the  whole  of 
1400  they  were  at  daggers  drawn,  but  did  not  venture  on 
open  hostilities.  Early  in  1401  Giovanni  Bentivoglio,  who 
had  entered  into  alliance  with  Gian  Galeazzo,  succeeded  in 
expelling  his  adversaries  and  in  getting  himself,  on  the  28th 
March,  proclaimed  Lord  of  Bologna.  He  had  promised  to 
sell  the  signiory  of  the  city  to  the  Duke  of  Milan,  but  now 
that  the  time  was  come  for  him  to  fulfil  his  bargain,  he  found 
himself  too  enamoured  of  his  new  dignity  to  resign  it  willingly. 
The  Duke  had  been  overreached  for  once,  and  his  only  plan 
now  was  to  enter  into  terms  with  the  exiled  Nanne  Gozzadini. 
The  alliance  was  made  accordingly. 

'  Religieux,  i.  516.  ^  See  ante,  p.  106. 


BOLOGNA  215 

The  Duke  was  determined  to  make  himself  master  of  the 
city  which  had  so  long  defied   his  power.     He  sent  against 
Bologna  a  force  of  twelve  thousand  horse  and  a  large  body  of 
foot  under  Jacopo  del  Verme,  Alberigo  da  Barbiano,  Facino 
Cane,  Carlo  Malatesta,  and  other  condottiere  generals.     The 
troops  of  Mantua  were  on  his   side  ;  those  of  Florence  and 
Padua  helped  Giovanni  Bentivoglio  and  the  men  of  Bologna, 
and  Sforza,  still  young  in  his  career  of  arms,  also  fought  on 
their  side.     The  forces  of  Bologna  were  on  the  east  bank  of 
the  river  Reno,  with  the  city  in  their  rear ;   those  of  Milan 
were    on    the   opposite    side    of    the    stream.      Bernadone    di 
Guascogna  was  in  command  of  one  army,  the  veteran  Jacopo 
del  Verme  of  the  other.     The  signal  for  attack  was  given  ;  the 
horse  advanced  rapidly  in  a  cloud  of  dust  to  the  steep  bank  ; 
the  fight  became  general.     The  Florentine  brigade,  known  as 
the  Company  of  the  Rose,  was  in    charge  of  the  Bridge  of 
Caselecchio ;    into  them    charged   Alberigo ;    the    Florentines 
gave  way  and  fled  before  the  Constable ;  the  men  of  Bologna 
saw  that  the  day  had  gone  against  them  and  Bentivoglio,  and 
at  once  raised  the  cry, '  Death  to  Signor  Giovanni ;  long  live  the 
People  !  ■"   The  fight  of  Caselecchio  was  won  for  the  Duke.    The 
Captain  of  Bologna,  the  two  sons  of  the  Lord  of  Padua,  Sforza, 
and  others  were  taken  prisoners  ;  the  Milanese  troops  entered  the 
city,  crying  '  Long  live  the  People  and  the  Arts  ! '  (27th  June 
1402).     The  Duke  had  promised  Nanne  Gozzadini  to  restore 
to  the  Bolognese  their  independence  ;  the  signiory  was  offered 
to  him,  and  he  refused  it,  hoping  for  a  popular  government. 
A  pretence  was  made  of  fulfilling  the  promise :    magistrates 
were   elected    and    orders    issued    in    the   name    of    the    free 
republic;  but  next  day  Gian  Galeazzo's  cavalry  took  posses- 
sion of  the  city,  and  a  noble  of  Bologna,  suborned  for  the 
purpose,  proposed  at  a  council  held  at  the  Palazzo  del  Commune 
on  the  14th  July  1402,  to  confer  the  signiory  on  the  Duke  of 
Milan.     The  infant  republic  was  thus  strangled  in  its  birth ; 
Nanne  Gozzadini  had  been  tricked,  and  Bologna  had  passed 
under  the  sway  of  Gian  Galeazzo,  Duke  of  Milan.     Giovanni 
Bentivoglio    had    fled    for   refuge  to  the    house  of  his  aged 
nurse,  but   was  tracked   and   brought  before  the    Constable. 
His  appeal  brought  tears  to  the  eyes  of  his  former  friend  but 


216     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

recent  enemy,  Nanne  Gozzadini ;  but  he  was  led  out,  delivered 
over  to  the  fickle  populace,  who  killed  him  in  cold  blood 
(30th  June).i 

Nanne  Gozzadini,  disappointed  and  angry,  went  to  Milan 
and  complained  of  the  turn  things  had  taken ;  the  Duke 
spoke  him  fair  and  then  shut  him  up  in  the  Kocca  di  Milano ; 
Nanne  escaped,  went  to  Ferrara,  and  implored  the  aid  of  its 
Signer  to  establish  a  Comrmme  at  Bologna  under  the  protection 
of  the  Church. 

Heaven  favoured  the  Pope.  The  Duke  of  Milan  was  now 
forty-five  years  of  age ;  he  had  all  the  best  generals  of  Italy 
in  his  pay  ;  he  had  subdued  nearly  all  Lombardy  and  a  large 
part  of  Central  Italy  ;  he  had  not,  indeed,  succeeded  in  getting 
the  Pope  to  make  an  alliance  with  him  against  the  new  King 
of  the  Romans,  but  he  had  defeated  that  King  at  Brescia  and 
had  forced  him  to  quit  Italy,  a  laughing-stock  to  gods  and 
men.  Gian  Galeazzo  with  Pisa,  Bologna,  Perugia,  and  Siena 
in  his  hands,  had  completely  encircled  Florence,  which  lay  at 
his  mercy  ;  he  was  now  so  secure  that,  as  he  himself  said,  God 
alone  could  hurt  him.^  He  might  reasonably  look  forward  to 
waging  war  on  favourable  terms  with  Venice,  and  thereafter 
marching  through  Italy  to  the  gates  of  Rome.  But  the  one 
power  which  the  Duke  feared  took  up  arms  against  him. 
Plague  broke  out  in  Lombardy,  and  Gian  Galeazzo  decided  to 
leave  Pavia  for  a  safer  place.  Like  many  other  long-headed 
men  of  his  time,  he  was  under  the  influence  of  astrologers ;  he 
consulted  them,  and  at  the  hour  which  they  pronounced 
propitious  he  retired  to  his  castle  at  Marignano.  But  it  was 
too  late ;  he  had  no  sooner  reached  the  town  than  the  dreaded 
fever  seized  him.  As  he  lay  a-dying,  five  hours  after  sundown, 
a  huge  comet  appeared  in  the  sky.  '  I  thank  God,'  said  the 
Duke,  '  that  the  sign  of  my  recall  appears  in  the  heavens,  plain 
for  all  men  to  see.""^  The  news  of  his  death  threw  the  people 
of  Florence  into  transports  of  delight ;  they  held  festivals  and 
games  to  celebrate  their  deliverance,  and  at  once  sent  an 
embassy  to  the  Pope  to  persuade  him  to  send  Baldassare  Cossa 
with  an  army  to  recapture  Bologna.  In  that  city  also  the 
true  feelings  of  the  people  appeared  :    they  broke  out  into 

^  Mur.  xviii.  209,  210  ;  572-4.  -  Tartini,  ii.  435,  443.  '  Mur.  xxi.  H. 


BOLOGNA  217 

tilting,  dancing,  and  song  ;  although  for  decency's  sake  they 
sent  two  citizens,  dressed  in  brown,  to  Milan  to  condole.^ 

Pope  Boniface  the  Ninth,  now  delivered  from  the  fear  of 
his  powerful  eneniv,  iiad  created  Baldassare  Cossa  Cardinal  of 
Saint  Eustachius  shortly  before,  and  lost  no  time  in  granting 
the  request  of  the  Florentines.^  Gian  Galeazzo  had  by  his 
will  left  Bologna,  with  other  places,  to  his  eldest  son  Giovanni 
Maria ;  and  Lionardo  Malaspina  came  from  Milan  to  govern 
the  city,  with  Facino  Cane  as  his  general.  Lionardo  belonged 
to  a  good  old  Milanese  family  which  had  taken  part  in  the  war 
with  Barbarossa.^  He  found  the  city  seething  with  discontent, 
imprisoned  many  of  the  leading  men,  but  was  quite  unable 
to  stop  the  continual  plots  which  were  formed.  Dissensions 
had  already  broken  out  in  Milan  among  the  followers  of  the 
late  Duke.  Carlo  Malatesta,  who  had  been  envoy  to  the  Pope 
in  1401,  joined  the  Florentines;  the  Constable  Alberigo  da 
Barbiano,  second  to  none  in  experience  and  skill,  entered  the 
service  of  the  Pope  in  April  1403.  Baldassare  Cossa  took  over 
the  supreme  command  from  Nicolas  of  Este,  Marquess  of 
Ferrara,  on  the  2nd  June. 

Cossa  found  in  the  army  several  condottiere  generals  of  note  : 
amone  them  were  the  two  Malatesti,  Carlo  and  Malatesta ; 
Braccio  dal  Montone,  one  of  the  most  skilful  commanders  of  the 
time ;  Paolo  Orsini,  hereafter  to  be  trusted  beyond  his  merits  ; 
Manfredo  Barbiani  and  others.  Here,  too,  were  Nanne  Gozza- 
dini  and  his  brother  Bonifacio,  anxious  by  means  of  the  Pope 
to  secure  the  lordship  of  Bologna.*  The  Papal  Legate  arrived 
before  the  city  on  the  9th  July.  On  the  13th,  Lionardo 
Malaspina  the  Milanese  governor  died,  and  Facino  Cane  took 
supreme  command,  for  the  minor  Duke.  Malaspina,  who  was 
highly  esteemed  by  all,  was  accorded  a  magnificent  funeral; 
while  the  Bolognese  soon  found  his  successor  to  be  an  unjust, 
avaricious,  and  bestial  ruler,  an  enemy  of  all  reason.^  Their 
spirits  soon  rose  in  revolt  against  him.  He  was  a  very 
capable  general,  however.  On  the  17th  July  he  closed  the  city 
gates,  and  sent  out  foraging  parties  to  bring  in  hay  and  corn. 
The  troops  of  the  allies  took  a  large  number  of  small  places 

^  Mur.  xviii.  576.  ^  Ibid.  xx.  291.  '  Giesebricht,  v.  570. 

■•  Gliirar,  ii.  542 ;  Mur.  xviii.  578 ;  xxi.  90.  ^  Ghirar,  ii.  544. 


218     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

round  the  city,  and  one  night  they  made  their  way  within  the 
walls,  only  to  be  turned  out  by  P'acino  Cane  in  the  morning. 
Skirmishes  between  the  enemies  were  frequent;  but  neither 
side  was  willing  to  risk  a  decisive  engagement. 

The  Papal  Legate  and  Carlo  Malatesta  therefore  decided  to 
carry  the  war  into  the  enemy's  country.  They  marched  by  Reggio 
and  Parma  towards  Milan ;  the  people  of  Brescia,  Cremona, 
Lodi,  Placentia,  and  Bergamo  revolted  from  the  new  Duke  of 
Milan,  and  proclaimed  their  independence.  Ugolino,  the  new 
ruler  of  Cremona,  welcomed  the  cardinal  and  his  troops,  and  put 
everything  at  their  disposal  for  the  passage  of  the  Po.  In  Milan 
itself  dissensions  were  rife  in  the  council  which  Gian  Galeazzo 
had  by  his  will  appointed  for  the  guidance  of  the  State : 
Francesco  Barvavara,  its  head,  had  been  deposed  and  a  more 
popular  assembly  constituted ;  the  Duchess  and  her  son  had 
been  forced  to  seek  shelter  in  the  citadel.  Giovanni  Maria  was 
consequently  glad  to  come  to  terms  with  his  adversaries.  This 
was  not  difficult.  Francesco  of  Gonzaga,  Lord  of  Mantua  and  one 
of  the  ducal  council,  was  faithful  to  the  Dowager  Duchess  and 
her  son  :  he  was  married  to  a  daughter  of  Bernabo  Visconti. 
Carlo  Malatesta  had  married  another  daughter.  Both  wives 
were  therefore  sisters  to  the  Duchess,  who,  though  married  to 
her  father's  murderer,  was  herself  the  sixth  of  the  ten  daughters 
of  old  Bernabo.^  Gonzaga  came  over  to  the  camp  of  the  Papal 
Legate,  and  without  the  knowledge  of  the  Florentine  allies  a 
treaty  was  soon  concluded  between  the  Pope's  representative 
and  the  Duke  of  Milan.  On  the  23rd  August  1403  peace  was 
publicly  announced  :  the  Duke  of  Milan  restored  to  the  Church 
Bologna,  Perugia,  and  other  towns  which  his  father  had  taken. 
The  news  reached  Bologna  on  the  28th  ;  the  citizens  grew  mad 
with  joy,  and  raised  the  cry  '  Viva  la  Chiesa ! '  They  became  so 
tumultuous  that  they  attacked  Facino  Cane  and  his  men,  who 
retaliated  ;  there  was  fisfhtino-  in  the  streets ;  three  hundred 
houses  were  burned,  but  the  general  was  forced  to  retire. ^  The 
populace  were  delighted  to  escape  from  the  harsh  rule  and  the 
taxes  of  the  Visconti  and  to  get  back  again  under  the  milder 
sway  of  the  Church ;  they  sent  out  on  the  2nd  September 
inviting  the  cardinal  to  enter  the  city.  On  the  Srd  September, 
^  Huebner,  tab.  298,  ^  Mur.  xviii.  581. 


BOLOGNA  219 

between  the  hours  of  seven  and  eight  p.m.,  Baldassare  Cossa 
made  his  triumphal  entry  into  Bologna. 

The  Florentines  complained  to  the  Pope  of  the  treaty  made 
behind  their  backs,  which  gave  no  assurance  for  the  independ- 
ence of  Tuscany ;  but  Boniface  was  too  delighted  with  what 
he  had  regained,  and  put  the  Florentines  off  with  fair  words. 
He  tried  to  persuade  them  that  the  Legate,  considering  the 
influence  of  Carlo  Malatesta  and  the  fact  that  the  Milanese 
had  not  been  conquered,  had  done  the  best  he  could.  This 
was  probably  the  fact ;  for  Carlo  Malatesta,  thougii  the  best 
and  most  loyal  of  his  race,^  had  formerly  been  in  the  pay  of 
Florence,  and  was  very  wroth  with  the  men  of  the  republic. 
They  were  a  pigeon-house  of  rustics,  he  said,  who  wanted  to 
ruin  all  the  gentlemen  of  Italy,  and  would  like  to  get  the 
Duke  of  Milan  to  hand  over  Pisa  to  them ;  but  the  wrathful 
Carlo  was  not  inclined  to  see  the  Guelfs  always  lording  it  over 
the  Ghibelines.2  The  Florentines  apparently  accepted  the 
Pope's  view,  for  they  never  betrayed  any  rancour  against  the 
Legate,  and  were  ready  to  enter  into  fresh  alliance  with  him 
when  the  time  came.  But  they  naturally  considered  that 
they  had  very  little  to  show  for  the  eighty-eight  thousand  florins 
which  they  had  expended;  and  to  humour  them  the  Pope, 
before  ratifying  the  treaty,  urged  the  Duke  of  Milan  to  include 
Florence  in  the  peace.  But  when  the  Duke  declined  and  the 
Florentines  asked  the  Pope  to  continue  the  war  against  him, 
Boniface  pleaded  poverty,  ratified  the  treaty,  and  left  the 
Florentines  to  fight  the  Duke  single-handed. 

Baldassare  Cossa,  Cardinal  of  Saint  Eustachius,  had  won 
back  for  the  Church  the  strange  old  city  with  the  arcaded 
streets,  and  was  now  acknowledged  Lord  of  Bologna.  The 
Signor  of  Imola  arrived  with  congratulations ;  on  the  day 
following  came  the  Marquess  of  Ferrara,  and  on  the  10th 
September  the  Signor  of  Ravenna.  Cossa's  position,  however, 
was  not  universally  accepted  even  in  Bologna  itself.  Plots  in 
favour  of  Nanne  Gozzadini,  who  had  entered  the  city  with  the 
Legate,  were  discovered  ;  Nanne's  son  and  brother  were  im- 
prisoned, and  the  latter  confessed  and  was  executed.  Having 
thus  strengthened  his  position,  and  obtained  possession  of  the 
'  Yriarte,  46.  -  Tartini,  ii.  486. 


220     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCH^S 

citadel,  Cossa  determined  to  make  his  '  pontifical  entry  '  after 
the  manner  of  Papal  Legates.  The  ceremony  was  fixed  for  the 
11th  November,  and  was  naturally  the  occasion  for  much  pomp 
and  circumstance.  On  the  night  of  the  10th  the  Legate  slept 
at  the  Monastery  of  the  Crociari  outside  the  walls,  and  in  the 
morning  he  entered  the  city  by  the  Porta  San  Mammolo,  All 
the  streets  through  which  he  was  to  pass  to  the  cathedral 
were  adorned  with  coloured  cloths  and  silks,  and  were  em- 
bellished with  the  arms  of  the  Church,  the  City,  and  the 
Legate.  All  the  nobles  and  chief  citizens  came  forth  to  meet 
him  ;  the  people  ran  to  greet  him  with  cries  of  Viva  la  Chiesa ! 
In  the  midst  of  them  was  the  carroccio,  drawn  by  four  bulls, 
with  scarlet  trappings  fringed  with  gold  ;  above  the  car  floated 
the  banner  of  the  Church,  and  on  it  stood  eight  Doctors  of 
the  Law  and  as  many  cavaliers,  to  all  of  whom  the  Legate  had 
presented  scarlet  robes.  Then  came  the  City  Ancients,  one 
of  whom  bore  the  banner  of  the  Church,  a  second  that  of  the 
City,  and  a  third  tiiat  of  the  new  Legate.  Then  followed  the 
magistrates  and  their  attendants  with  music  of  divers  kinds. 
Cossa  entered  the  city  on  horseback,  a  scarlet  canopy  richly 
fringed  and  lined  held  over  his  head,  four  young  nobles  of 
Bologna  acting  as  his  grooms.  At  the  city  gates,  to  the 
sound  of  trumpets  and  drums,  the  keys  were  handed  to  him 
on  a  golden  salver,  and  orations  and  verses  in  Latin  and  the 
vulgar  were  recited.  Thence,  all  along  the  road,  boys  dressed 
as  angels  escorted  him  to  the  cathedral,  where  he  was  welcomed 
by  the  bishop  and  the  clergy.^  Thus  did  Baldassare  Cossa 
take  possession  of  Bologna. 

The  city  of  Bologna,  situate  where  the  long  line  of  the 
L^pper  Apennines  at  length  ceases  to  dominate  the  wearisome 
'  waveless  plain '  of  Southern  Lombardy,  was  at  once  the  key 
and  the  capital  of  the  province  JEmilia.  In  those  days  the 
city  was  skirted  by  a  wood,  and  was  famous  for  its  square 
towers  even  more  than  for  its  arcaded  streets.  These  towers, 
nine  hundred  and  fifty  in  number  at  one  time,  were  for  the 
most  part  built  of  wood,  often  one  within  five  feet  of  its 
neighbour ;  they  rose  at  times  out  of  the  meanest  houses.^  The 
porticoes  forming  the  arcades  were  never  less  than  seven  yards 
^  Ghirar,  ii.  549;  Frati,  171.  ^  Frati,  3. 


BOLOGNA  221 

high,  and  sometimes  rose  above  the  first  two  storeys  of  the 
building ;  they  served  the  purpose  of  keeping  out  the  sun  in 
summer  and  the  snow  in  winter.  The  houses  were  nearly  all 
of  timber  cut  from  the  neighbouring  wood  ;  the  upper  storeys 
projected  over  the  crooked  narrow  streets,  excluding  light  and 
air.  The  more  pretentious  buildings  were  made  of  brick,  and 
were  ornamented  with  terra  cotta  ;  there  was  no  marble.  The 
ordinary  private  iiouses  had  neither  cellars,  drains,  nor  wells  ; 
but  there  were  public  wells,  and  near  these  no  one  was  allowed 
to  deposit  refuse,  nor  were  barbers  permitted  to  shave  or 
bleed  any  one  in  the  vicinity.  Ordure  of  every  kind  was 
thrown  into  the  open  drains  to  be  washed  away  by  the  rains ; 
the  only  scavengers  were  the  sows  and  gelded  hogs  which  roamed 
the  streets.  A  commencement  toward  order  and  sanitation 
had,  however,  already  been  made.  Every  traveller  who  entered 
the  city  at  one  gate  was  required  to  procure  a  ticket  before 
he  could  leave  it  at  another.^  Here  and  there  the  crowded 
houses  had  been  cleared  away  and  open  squares  made ;  one  of 
the  earliest  clearances  had  been  effected  in  anticipation  of  the 
visit  of  Pope  John  the  Twenty-second.  The  Piazza  of  Raveg- 
nana  around  the  well-known  leaning  towers  of  Asinelli  and 
Garisendi,  the  Piazza  Maggiore,  now  called  the  Piazza  Vit- 
torio  Emmanuele,  the  squares  before  the  churches  of  San 
Stefano  and  San  Michele  de'  Leprosetti,  had  all  been  formed 
before  the  time  of  the  Legate's  entry,  and  all  but  the  last- 
mentioned  before  the  time  when  he  first  came  as  a  student  to 
Bologna.  The  cathedral  of  San  Pietro  had  been  rebuilt  and 
again  repaired  after  an  earthquake.  The  church  of  Saint 
Dominic  had  been  constructed  by  Nicola  Pisano  in  the 
thirteenth  century ;  so,  too,  had  the  church  of  Saint  Francis, 
the  first  Italian  church  with  three  naves,  the  most  beautiful  and 
picturesque  of  the  churches  of  Bologna,  although  its  bell-tower 
was  built  and  its  wonderful  altar  finished  later  while  Cossa  was 
at  Rome ;  the  church  of  Saint  James  the  Greater  had  been  becrun 
and  been  enlarged.  The  palaces  of  the  Commune  and  the 
Podesta  were  both  in  existence  at  the  end  of  the  thirteenth 
century  ;  the  old  palace  of  the  Pepoli  was  built  in  the  middle 
of  the  fourteenth  century ;    the   College  of  Spain,   with   its 

^  Burckhardt,  50. 


222     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

peaceful  garden  reminding  one  of  an  Oxford  quadrangle,  was 
commenced  by  Cardinal  Albomoz  in  1365. 

Baldassare  Cossa  had  been  a  student  at  the  University  when 
the  walls  of  the  city  were  rebuilt,  when  the  Palazzo  Publico  was 
restored,  when  the  Society  of  Notaries  erected  their  palace,  when 
Andrea  Manfredi  built  the  Portico  and  the  Church  dei  Servi, 
and  when  the  monumental  basilica  of  San  Petronio  was  com- 
menced. He  must  often  have  witnessed  the  fetes  and  fairs  held 
in  connection  with  the  building  of  the  sacred  edifice.  The  first 
mass  was  said  in  it  in  the  year  when  he  became  archdeacon  ; 
the  first  interment  was  made  in  it  in  the  year  when  he  entered 
as  Papal  Legate.  This  wonderful  church,  which  in  the  perfec- 
tion of  its  interior  proportion  and  in  its  exquisite  upper 
lighting  surpasses  the  Duomo  at  Florence,  would,  if  it  had 
been  completed  on  the  lines  laid  down  by  its  architect,  Antonio 
de  Vincenzo,  have  been  the  largest  and  most  glorious  church 
of  Christendom ;  but,  like  so  many  of  the  churches  of  Upper 
Italy,  it  was  destined  to  remain  a  magnificent  torso.  The 
Foro  or  Loggia  dei  Mercanti,  the  tribunal  of  the  twelve  com- 
panies of  the  '  Arts '  of  Bologna,  situate  near  the  two  leaning 
towers,  a  building  which  is  no  less  remarkable  for  its  perfect 
ogival  architecture  than  for  its  beautiful  terra-cotta  ornamenta- 
tion, was  also  begun  and  finished  while  the  Legate  was  a 
student  at  Bologna.  The  city  which  he  was  to  capture  and 
to  rule  was  one  which  might  well  fill  any  man's  heart  with 
pi*ide  to  hold  under  his  sway.  It  still  retains  many  of  its  old 
features,  its  ancient  palaces,  its  arcaded  and  frescoed  streets, 
its  towered  churches.  The  water  is  still  brought  into  the  town 
by  the  Canale  di  Reno,  as  it  was  in  the  days  when  Giovanni 
Bentivoglio  defended  the  water  supply  at  Caselecchio  against 
the  forces  of  Milan.  John  Garzon  of  Bologna,  writing  about 
sixty  years  later,  gives  a  most  enthusiastic  description  of  his 
native  city,  in  terms  which  must  have  been  applicable  for  the 
most  part  at  the  time  when  Baldassare  Cossa  became  Legate. 

Garzon  sketches  its  history  from  the  earliest  times  :  '  Aeneas 
had  not  crossed  into  Italy,  Ascanius  had  not  built  Alba,  nor 
Romulus  Rome,  when  Bologna  .  .  .  was  already  the  noblest 
town  of  Tuscany,  the  chief  city  in  Etruria."'  He  enumerates 
its  warriors,  its  literary  men,  its  jurists,  its    physicians,  its 


BOI.OGNA  223 

philosophers,  its  theologians,  nor  does  he  omit  the  Friars, 
Dominicans,  Franciscans,  Carmelites,  Augustinians,  and  Ser- 
vites  who  had  dwelt  within  its  borders;  finally  he  concludes 
with  a  description  of  the  town  itself.  It  extends,  he  says,  as 
far  as  the  foot  of  the  Apennines,  a  most  flourishing  and 
fruitful  spot,  abounding  in  holy  temples,  in  vineyards,  and  in 
olive  groves ;  the  excellence  of  the  climate  and  the  purity  of  the 
air  are  polluted  by  no  marshy  vapours  ;  the  soil  is  of  extra- 
ordinary fertility,  producing  crops  sufficient  for  the  citizens  and 
for  export;  wood,  honey,  oil,  flax,  everything  useful  grows 
here.  The  city  is  adorned  with  handsome  and  famous  edifices; 
it  has  large  underground  drains ;  it  possesses  towers  from 
which  the  approach  of  an  enemy  or  the  existence  of  a  fire  can 
be  at  once  discerned.  The  Savena  skirts  it  on  the  east ;  the 
Reno  enters  on  the  west,  and  avails  for  the  turning  of  mills, 
for  the  stamping  of  iron,  for  the  making  of  paper  from 
papyrus,  for  the  grinding  of  saffron,  pepper,  ginger,  and  the 
like.  There  is  also  a  very  deep  ditch,  called  Cavadizus, 
running  into  the  Reno,  and  on  both  sides  of  it  are  small 
houses  belonging  to  citizens  or  to  aliens  of  small  substance. 
On  the  Savena,  where  it  enters  the  city,  live  the  dyers  in 
vermilion  and  the  workers  in  leather.  Nor,  said  he  in  con- 
clusion, must  I  forget  to  mention  the  grace  of  the  women,  the 
handsomeness  of  the  men,  the  culture  of  the  citizens,  the 
elegance  and  majesty  of  their  demeanour.^ 

Garzon's  concluding  words  recall  the  apostrophe  in  the  De- 
cameron to  Bologna,  '  that  most  famous  city  of  Lombardy,'  " 
which  show  that  Boccaccio  deemed  the  ladies  to  be  most  sweet, 
winsome,  and  debonair  :  '  Ah  !  Bologna  !  how  sweetly  mixed  are 
the  elements  in  thy  women  !  How  commendable  are  they  all  ! 
No  delight  have  they  in  sighs  and  tears,  but  are  ever  inclinable 
to  prayers,  and  ready  to  yield  to  the  solicitations  of  love.  Had 
I  but  words  apt  to  praise  them  as  they  deserve,  my  eloquence 
were  inexhaustible/^  Such  was  Bologna,  the  city  over  which 
Baldassare  Cossa  was  to  rule  firmly  and  justly  for  nine  years, 
increasing  its  fame  and  extending  its  dominion.*  It  was  the 
city  which  he  loved,  the  city  whose  memory  lie  cherished  with 

'   Mur.  xxi.  1 143.  ^  Decameron,  ii.  328. 

"  Decameron,  ii.  147.  *  Ciaconius,  ii.  7S5  ;  Chri.-.tophe,  iii.  343. 


224     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

pride  and  regret.  When  in  1415  he  was  being  hunted  and 
harassed  at  Constance,  it  is  piteous  to  read  his  continued  pro- 
testations that,  if  he  were  only  allowed  to  go  back  to  Bologna 
as  Papal  Legate  again,  he  would  desire  nothing  better  and  ask 
nothing  more. 

Now  that  Baldassare  Cossa  was  Lord  of  Bologna,  there  was 
much  in  the  city  for  him  to  do ;  the  walls  and  fortresses  to 
strengthen,  the  buildings  to  repair,  the  roads  to  mend.  In 
1404  he  dismantled  the  citadel  at  the  San  Felice  Gate  and 
erected  a  castle  at  the  Galiera  Gate ;  he  built  a  large  covered 
drain ;  he  raised  the  flooring  of  the  Piazza,  and  paved  the 
entrance  to  San  Petronio.^  It  was  a  simple  matter  to  impress 
the  poor  people  and  the  peasantry  from  the  surrounding 
villages,  and  by  forced  labour  to  get  logs  and  timber  carted 
into  the  city,  and  the  rougher  work  performed.  But  this 
did  not  provide  material  nor  skilled  labour.  To  this  end 
taxes  were  necessary.  The  Papal  Legate  introduced  a  strict 
system  of  octroi  and  excise,  the  taxes  which,  with  the  land- 
tax,  were  the  usual  sources  of  revenue  in  Italian  cities.^  A 
tax  of  fifty  per  cent,  was  imposed  on  wine,  which  could  only  be 
bought  from  licensed  retailers.  These  taxes  were  no  more 
popular  in  Bologna  than  in  Rome  :  excise  is  an  eminently  fair 
tax,  but  it  is  also  universally  unpopu  ar.  Millers  were  taxed, 
and  bread  could  only  be  purchased  at  certain  appointed  shops. 
Money-lenders,  jugglers,  and  acrobats  were  obliged  to  contri- 
bute to  the  town  exchequer. 

The  men  of  Bologna,  like  those  of  other  Italian  cities,  were 
very  fond  of  games  of  chance.  There  were  games  with  dice, 
with  draughts,  and  with  chequers ;  there  were  knuckle-bones, 
skittles,  hazard,  and  other  games.  Most  of  them  were  played 
with  dice  or  with  tables.  It  was  an  age  of  gambling;  the 
Florentine  diplomatist,  Buonaccorso  Pitti,  gamed  so  high 
that  none  but  princes  and  dukes  could  play  with  him.  In 
Bologna  as  elsewhere  cheating  frequently  occurred :  certain 
vagabonds  and  swindlers  were  convicted  in  1402,  the  year 
before  Cossa  came  as  Legate,  of  cheating  two  hog-merchants 
from  Milan.  It  was  easier  to  regulate  than  to  suppress  such 
games  ;  accordingly  certain  appointed  gaming-houses,  known 
1  Mur.  xviii.  586.  *  Burckhardt,  8. 


BOLOGNA  225 

as  Baratterie,  after  the  Lombard  engineer  who  saved  Venice 
in  the  twelfth  century,  were  established  and  were  farmed  out 
to  the  highest  bidder.  A  number  of  these  Baratterie  were 
scattered  through  the  city,^  and  on  all  games  played  with 
dice  Baldassare  Cossa  levied  a  tax. 

Nor  were  the  women  of  pleasure  exempt.  The  loose-zoned 
Cyprians,  with  eyes  dark  as  the  roe  and  mouths  sweeter  than 
honey,  those  vacuae  personae  to  whom  alone  among  women, 
if  men  must  needs  go  wrong,  Jean  Gerson  desired  that  they 
should  confine  their  amorous  attentions,-  were  naturally  very 
numerous  in  the  large  University  town,  where  they  might 
hope  to  'catch  nightingales'  with  students  from  far  and 
near.  They  lived  in  Castelletto  Street,  being  expressly  for- 
bidden to  dwell  anywhere  near  churches  or  monasteries.  A 
special  dress  was  prescribed  for  these  ladies,  but  they  preferred 
the  spotless  white  raiment  of  virgins.  They  were  ordered 
to  wear  a  cowl  over  their  heads,  with  a  little  bell,  which 
tinkled  as  they  walked.^  Many  of  them  had  been  converted 
from  the  error  of  their  ways  in  1402  by  the  preaching  of 
the  Franciscan  Friar,  Antonio  da  Ritonto ;  but  those  who 
still  pursued  their  old  trade  had  to  pay  tribute  to  the  Papal 
Legate. 

All  these  taxes  brought  in  money,  but  they  made  the 
Legate  unpopular;  and  what  made  Baldassare  Cossa's  taxa- 
tion peculiarly  obnoxious,  and  gained  him  a  reputation  for 
tyranny  and  harshness,  was  that  he  taxed  all  alike,  rich  and 
poor,  those  who  could  make  their  discontent  heard  and  those 
who  could  not.  He  even  refused  to  exempt  those  who  came 
into  the  city  with  safe-conducts  furnished  by  some  potentate 
outside;  everyone  paid  his  share.  It  was  perfectly  just,  but 
it  was  not  customary,  and  hence  it  was  unpopular.*  Caesar 
Borgia,  a  century  later,  incurred  a  similar  unpopularity  from 
a  similar  reason.  Under  the  firm  rule  of  Baldassare  Cossa, 
however,  the  city  was  at  peace  and  flourished  exceedingly,  for 
he  governed  it  strongly  and  well.* 

The  years  which  followed  the  loss  of  Bologna  were  full  of 
disaster  for  the  heirs  of  Gian  Galeazzo,  Duke  of  Milan.     His 

1  Frali,  128-9.  '^  Schwab,  388.  *  Frati,  102-5. 

*  Hardt,  ii.  348-50.  *  Mur.  iii.  854;  Duchesne,  ii.  512. 


226     m  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

widowed  Duchess  Catharine,  who  had  alienated  her  other 
co-executors  and  co-regents  by  her  excessive  fondness  for 
Barbavara,  was  in  1404  seized  by  her  son  Giovanni  Maria, 
was  imprisoned  in  the  Castle  of  Milan,  and  was  finally 
poisoned.  The  younger  brother,  Filippo  Maria,  was  also 
imprisoned  at  Pavia,  The  natural  son,  Gabriel,  lost  his  city, 
Pisa,  which  in  1406  became  subject  to  Florence,  as  will  be 
hereafter  narrated.  Divided  and  weakened,  the  two  brothers, 
Giovanni  and  Filippo,  lacking  the  astuteness  and  ability  of 
their  father,  gradually  lost  their  possessions ;  town  after 
town  revolted  from  them  and  won  its  independence.  Finally 
in  1408  they  quarrelled  with  their  faithful  and  able  general 
Facino  Cane,  and  put  themselves  under  the  protection  of  Carlo 
Malatesta. 

During  these  years  Baldassare  Cossa  occupied  himself  in 
consolidating    his    sway    in    Bologna    and    in    recovering   its 
territories.     At  first,  before  the  strength  and  firmness  of  his 
rule   were   known  and   appreciated,  he  had  to  contend  with 
treason  inside  the  city.     He  got  possession  of  the  citadel  in 
1403.1      During   that   year   the    plots    in    favour    of   Nanne 
Gozzadini,  who  was  ever  intriguing  for  the  lordship  of  the 
city,  began  ;  and  after  Bonifacio  Gozzadini  had  been  put  to 
death,  a  plot  was  discovered,  at  the  head  of  which  was  Cossa's 
trusted  captain,  Vanello  da  Montefalco.     Its  success  was  marred 
by  a  timely  storm,  and  the  leading  traitors   were  executed.^ 
Nanne  Gozzadini  had  possessed  himself  of  Massumatico  and 
other  strong  places  belonging  to  the  Church,  and  refused  to 
restore  them.      Corrado  da  Matelica  and  Paolo  Orsini  were 
sent  against   Massumatico,   but  in   the  assault   Corrado  was 
killed  ;  he  received  honourable  sepulture,  and  at  the  funeral 
there  was  present  no  less  a  person  than  Cosmato  de'  Megliorati, 
who  had  formerly  been  Bishop  of  Bologna  (1386-7),  and  was 
now  Archbishop  of  Ravenna,  a  cardinal,  and  on  the  eve  of 
still    higher    promotion.      Nanne's    son    Gabbione,    who    was 
godson  to  the  Legate,  had  meantime  confessed  that  he  had 
set  about  to  kill  Carlo  Malatesta  and  to  drive  the  officials  of 
Holy  Church  out  of  Bologna ;  he  was  tried  and  condemned, 
and  was  on  the  point  of  being  executed  when  the  ambassadors 
^  Mur.  xviii.  584.  ^  Ghirar,  ii.  551. 


BOLOGNA  227 

from  Venice  and  Florence  intervened.  They  suggested  that 
he  should  be  employed  to  treat  with  his  father.  The  Legate 
assented.  Gabbioiie  wrote  to  his  father,  but  without  effect. 
He  was  even  taken  outside  the  fort  of  Cento,  which  Nanne  was 
holding,  and  saw  his  father;  but  Nanne  continued  obdurate. 
Gabbione  was  executed.  The  ambassadors  tried  to  persuade 
Nanne,  who  saw  that  his  case  was  hopeless,  to  deliver  his 
fortresses  to  the  Legate  on  payment  often  thousand  ducats  ;  and 
an  agreement  was  drawn  up;  but  before  it  was  executed  the 
fighting  between  Baldassare  Cossa  and  Nanne  Gozzadini  broke 
out  afresh.  This  time  the  papal  troops  were  successful ; 
Massumatico  and  Rocca  di  Cento  were  taken  ;  Nanne  abandoned 
Pieve  and  fled  to  Ferrara.  The  leading  traitors  of  his  party 
were  captured  and  put  to  death ;  the  populace  sacked  his 
palaces,  and  the  city  at  last  had  peace. 

In  this  same  year  (1404)  the  Papal  Legate  obtained  the  city 
of  Faenza.  The  lord  thereof  was  at  deadly  feud  with  the 
Constable  Alberigo  da  Barbiano,  who  pressed  him  so  hard 
that  he  was  fain  to  sell  his  city.  He  offered  it  first  to  the 
Florentines,  and  wlien  thev  declined  he  sold  it  to  Baldassare 
Cossa  for  twenty-five  thousand  golden  florins  which  the  city 
advanced.  With  tears  in  his  eyes  Astorre  de'  IVIanfredi  retired 
to  Forli  to  the  protection  of  Carlo  Malatesta ;  he  went  thence 
to  LTrbino,  complaining  that  the  Legate  had  swindled  him. 
In  1405  he  was  detected  plotting  to  regain  possession  of 
the  city  which  he  had  sold ;  the  Legate  captured  him  and 
gave  him  short  shrift,  for  on  the  25th  November  he  had  him 
executed.^ 

Meantime  there  had  been  a  change  in  the  Papacy  at  Rome, 
and  it  is  necessary  again  to  take  up  the  story  of  the  rival 
Popes.  The  Great  Schism  continued.  Benedict  the  Thirteenth 
had  regained  the  spiritual  allegiance  of  the  kingdoms  within 
his  obedience  on  terms  which  practically  left  him  with  a  free 
hand,  but  still  on  the  distinct  understanding  that  he  would 
do  all  that  in  him  lay  to  put  an  end  to  the  accursed  Schism. 
After  his  long  imprisonment  he  seemed  inclined  to  rest  on 
his  oars  awhile,  contenting  himself  with  gathering  into  his 
hands  the  reins  of  papal  power,  and  making  his  rule  firmly 
'  Tarlini,  ii.  540  ;  Mur,  xviii.  589. 


228     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

felt  in  the  countries  which  acknowledged  it.  He  was  very 
chary  of  acknowledging  promotions  which  had  been  made 
during  the  subtraction ;  he  effected  numerous  changes  and 
reversions  among  the  French  bishops ;  ^  he  gathered  in  all 
outstanding  tithes,  spoils,  and  annates,  insisting  on  being 
paid  in  a  certain  currency.^  He  might,  indeed,  during  this 
time  have  redeemed  his  promise  of  holding  a  general  council 
of  his  obedience;  but  the  French  and  Castilian  prelates,  of 
whom  the  majority  of  that  council  would  have  been  composed, 
had  been  too  lately  in  open  revolt  to  allow  him  the  hope 
that  their  proceedings  would  be  decorous  or  respectful.  He 
therefore,  not  having  pledged  himself  to  any  fixed  time  or 
place  for  the  meeting  of  the  council,  postponed  it  for  the 
present. 

It  is  necessary  at  this  point  to  understand  his  position  in 
order  to  grasp  the  trend  of  his  future  policy.  His  hands 
were  practically  free.  He  had  from  the  beginning  declared 
his  preference  for  the  method  of  terminating  the  Schism  by 
the  method  known  as  the  via  conventioms  or  via  justiciae 
declarandae.  He  was  to  meet  his  rival  and  to  discuss  the 
situation  with  him ;  and  he  had  so  great  confidence  in  the 
legality  and  superiority  of  his  own  position,  that  he  made  no 
doubt  of  conquest  in  the  argument  and  of  thereby  restoring 
to  the  Church  the  unity  of  which  it  had  so  long  been  deprived. 
For  this  end  he  was  now  to  work.  France  had  extended  her 
sway  over  Genoa,  Savona,  and  Leghorn  ;  so  would  he  extend 
his  sway  by  argument,  by  diplomacy,  if  necessary  by  force. 
He  soon  saw  Genoa  and  Savona  won  to  his  obedience  ;  he 
determined  to  send  embassies  to  Rome  to  work  for  the  via, 
conventionis.  He  was  ready  to  feel  his  way  to  a  coup  dc 
main ;  he  was  ready  himself  to  go  to  Genoa  or  even  further.^ 
The  one  method  which  he  was  not  ready  to  embrace,  which 
he  regarded  as  a  dereliction  of  duty  and  as  fatal  to  the  hope 
of  unity  in  the  Church,  was  the  via  cessionis.  He  was  clear 
that  in  the  xna  conventionis,  not  in  the  via  cessionis,  was 
the  welfare  of  the  Church  to  be  sought ;  and  there  is  no  reason 
to  doubt  that  this  was,  apart  from  all  self-seeking,  his  deliberate 
conscientious  opinion. 

^  Kehimann,  109.  -  Martene,  ii.  1 302-3.         ^  Ehrle,  vii.  579, 


John,  Duke  of  Burgl-ndv. 


.^- 


BOLOGNA  229 

Very  soon  he  was  forcibly  reminded  that,  although  obedience 
had  been  restored  to  him,  France  expected  him  without  delay 
to  do  his  utmost  to  restore  unity  to  the  Church.  On  the  27th 
April  1404,  in  the  sixty-third  year  of  his  age,  died  Philip  of 
Burgundy.  He  was  succeeded  by  his  son  John  the  Fearless,  a 
more  impetuous  and  determined  but  a  less  intelligent  man 
than  his  father,  who  inherited  to  the  full  all  his  animosity 
against  the  Duke  of  Orleans  and  against  the  Pope.  On  New 
Year's  Day  1404,  Jean  Gerson,  Chancellor  of  the  University 
of  Paris,  who  had  flattered  the  Pope  only  two  months  before, 
preached  at  Tarascon  a  sermon  before  Benedict  and  his 
, cardinals,  which  must  have  opened  their  eyes,  if  that  were 
necessary,  to  the  state  of  public  feeling.  Gerson  was  at  the 
head  of  the  moderate  party  in  the  University  :  he  had  been 
opposed  to  the  subtraction  of  obedience;  he  had  welcomed 
its  restitution.  But  he  was  above  all  a  patriotic  Frenchman  ; 
he  hated  the  tyranny  and  financial  oppression  of  the  Duke  of 
Orleans,  from  whom  the  poor  everywhere  prayed  to  be 
delivered ;  ^  his  fatherland  was  dearer  to  him  than  the  mere 
idea  of  a  universal  Church;-  he  was  a  disciple  of  Henry  of 
Langenstein,  and  was  of  opinion  that  if  the  best  way  of 
ending  the  Schism,  the  '  way  of  cession,'  was  impracticable,  then 
recourse  must  be  had  to  the  '  way  of  a  council."'  In  his 
sermon  he  insisted  that  the  welfare  of  the  Church  was  the 
paramount  object,  superior  even  to  that  of  obedience  to  him 
whom  they  might  deem  to  be  rightful  Pope;  that  to  this  end 
all  were  bound  to  work,  even  the  Pope  himself.  He  reminded 
Benedict  that  Christ  had  said,  '  Whosoever  will  be  great 
among  you,  let  him  be  your  minister,'  and  '  The  good  shepherd 
giveth  his  life  for  the  sheep.'  The  independent,  straight- 
forward orator  insisted  that  for  extraordinary  situations 
extraordinary  remedies  were  necessary,  that  the  boon  of 
peace  to  the  Church  was  so  great,  so  insistent,  that  nothing 
should  stand  to  hinder  it ;  that  it  were  better  to  abandon  the 
rightful  Pope  and  for  a  time  to  have  no  Pope,  if  so  the 
Church  might  win  unity  and  peace.  Even  if  the  canon  law 
were  against  them,  the  divine  law  gave  no  uncertain  sound. 
The  welfare  of  the  Church  was  the  paramount  object;  it  were 
'  Rdigieux,  iii.  232.  "  Bess,  40. 


230     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

better  for  the  Church  even  to  do  without  a  Pope  for  a  time 
if  so  they  might  win  peace ;  salvation  was  possible  without  a 
Pope.  Therefore  the  plan  of  an  oecumenical  council  was 
not  to  be  rejected  even  though  it  might  decide  against  them  ; 
although  such  a  council  might  be  fallible  in  matters  of  fact, 
yet  they  were  to  believe  that,  under  the  present  circumstances, 
in  which  the  wit  of  man  could  find  no  better  expedient,  the 
Holy  Ghost  would  in  its  own  wondrous  way  guide  the  council 
to  a  right  conclusion.^  This  outspoken  discourse  created  no 
small  stir.  It  angered  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  with  whom 
Pierre  d'Ailly  spoke  for  the  orator.  Pope  Benedict  hastened 
to  thank  the  University  for  their  good  counsel ;  he  assured 
them  that  it  was  unnecessary,  seeing  that  anxiety  for  the 
unity  of  the  Church  was  never  absent  from  his  mind,  and 
that  he  was  ready  to  lay  down  his  life  for  the  Church. 

It  clearly  behoved  the  Pope  to  do  something,  and  he  accord- 
ingly determined  to  send  an  embassy  to  his  rival ;  he  would 
convert  him  to  the  '  way  of  convention.'  He  selected  two 
bishops  and  two  Franciscan  friars.  They  took  their  way  to 
Florence,  and  the  prior  of  that  city  procured  a  safe-conduct 
from  Rome  for  them,  and  sent  an  ambassador  of  his  own  with 
them ;  two  Roman  bishops  met  them  outside  Rome  and  con- 
ducted them  to  their  inn.  Boniface  at  first  refused  to  see 
them  unless  they  would  do  him  the  customary  honours  as 
Pope ;  but  they  answered  that  they  could  not  kneel  to  him 
nor  kiss  his  foot  nor  do  anything  in  derogation  of  their  own 
master.  It  was  represented  to  the  Pope  that  his  own  envoys 
would  have  made  the  same  answer  to  Benedict ;  he  was  nettled, 
but  gave  way.  The  object  of  the  embassy  was  to  bring  about 
a  convention,  a  meeting  of  the  Popes,  with  a  view  to  ending 
the  Schism.  But  Boniface  had  made  no  promise  to  resign 
conditionally,  as  had  Benedict ;  he  was  the  canonically  elected 
Pope ;  he  had  been  spending  freely  from  the  vast  wealth 
he  had  amassed  in  order  to  win  back  the  papal  estates. 
Now  when  the  might  of  Milan  was  crumbling  in  the  north, 
when  the  might  of  Naples  was  quiescent  in  the  south, 
when  Bologna,  Perugia,  and  Assisi,  the  centre  of  Italy,  had 
been  won  back  to  his  obedience,  there  arrived  this  embassy 
1  Schwab,  171 -8. 


BOLOGNA  281 

suggesting  abdication.     It  was  more  than  he  could  bear  with 
equanimity.     He  would  not  hear  of  the  proposed  meeting;  it 
was  impossible  for  him  to  make  the  journey,  for  he  was  suffer- 
ing   from    gout,   from    stone,   and    from    gravel.      Benedict's 
bishops  then  suggested  that  the  cardinals  of  both  obediences 
should  meet  and  confer  together ;  but  neither  would  Boniface 
agree  to  this.     Their  third    proposition   was    that  an   equal 
number  of  arbitrators  should  be  appointed  by  each  side  ;  but 
Boniface  rejected   this  proposal  also,  and  asked  if  they  had 
anything  further  to  suggest.^     They  admitted  that  they  had 
not,   but    reproached    him   with    going    back    on    his   former 
good  resolutions;  they  dwelt  in  glowing  terms  on  the  horrors 
of  the  Schism,  and  insinuated  that  he  was  the  cause  of  its  con- 
tinuance.    Boniface,  hardly  able  to  stand  from  the   pain   he 
was  suffering,  fired  up ;  he  told  them  in  his  anger  that  he  was 
the  true  Pope,  that  Benedict  was  an  Anti-Pope,  schismatic,  a 
heretic,  and  no  Christian.     The  ambassadors  quietly  answered 
that   at   any  rate    their   master  was  not  a   simoniac.      This 
repai'tee  was  too  much  for  the  Pope ;  he  ordered  them  at  once 
to  quit  the  city ;  they  answered  that  they  had  a  safe-conduct 
from  him  and  from  the  Roman  people  and  that  they  meant 
to   avail   themselves  thereof.      The   heated   interview,   which 
occurred  on  the  29th  September  1404,  threw  the  Pope  into  a 
fever  ;  a  stone  in  the  neck  of  the  bladder  caused  him  excruciat- 
ing agony ;  on  the  1st  October  he  received  the  extreme  unction. 
Pope  Boniface  was  dead.     He  had  just  passed  his  fiftieth 
year:  he  was  a  strong  Pope  ;  handsome,  stalwart,  and  courteous  ; 
a  born  ruler  of  men.    But  he  was  utterly  simoniacal ;  he  exacted 
the  first-fruits  before  making  a  promotion  ;  he  was  not  ashamed 
to  sell  benefices  twice  or  thrice  over;  he  introduced  grants  of 
'  preference '  and  of  '  pre-preference ' ;  he  sold  exemptions  from 
canonical  restrictions,  rights  to  hold  pluralities,  permissions  to 
monks  to  exchange  from  one  order  to  another,  or  from  a  men- 
dicant to  a  non-mendicant  order.     He  would  not  even  sign  an 
order  on  a  petition  without  receiving  a  ducat."     On  the  other 
hand,  he  spent  the  greater  part  of  his  wealth  on  the  Church, 
although  he  also  gave  liberally  to  his  mother,   his  brothers, 
and  his  nephews.     Whatever  manner  of  life  he  may  have  lived 
1  Tartini,  ii.  513.  -  Mur.  iii.  831  ;  Creighton,  i.  132,  182. 


232     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

in  his  earlier  years,  he  changed  it  entirely  as  soon  as  he 
assumed  the  tiara  ;  thenceforward  no  one  could  cast  an  asper- 
sion on  his  moral  character.  He  relied  but  little  on  the 
advice  of  his  cardinals.  His  successor  was  his  chief  man  of 
confidence ;  and  whereas  Urban  the  Sixth  in  his  eleven  years 
of  office  had  created  between  sixty  and  seventy  new  cardinals, 
Boniface  the  Ninth  in  the  thirteen  years  which  elapsed  before 
he  raised  Baldassare  Cossa  to  the  purple  created  but  four. 
Two  of  his  cardinals,  however,  themselves  became  Popes. 

The  death  of  Boniface,  now  that  his  firm  hand  and  rule  were 
no  more,  threw  his  rival's  ambassadors  into  a  quandary  as  to 
their  own  safety.  They  consulted  the  cardinals,  who  advised 
them  to  remain  where  they  were.  They,  however,  determined 
to  escape  from  Rome  if  possible,  but  they  were  captured  by  the 
Commandant  of  the  Castle  as  they  were  leaving  by  the  Bridge 
of  Sant  Angelo.  They  were  in  prison  for  ten  days,  and  had  to 
pay  a  ransom  of  five  thousand  florins  to  regain  their  freedom. 
Then  began  negotiations  between  them  and  the  Roman  car- 
dinals as  to  the  election  of  a  new  Pope.  The  French  ambas- 
sadors suggested  that  the  election  should  be  deferred  ;  Pope 
Benedict  was  willing  to  do  anything,  they  said,  to  put  an  end 
to  the  Schism.  The  Roman  cardinals  wanted  to  know  if  he 
would  abdicate.  The  ambassadors  of  Benedict  had  no  orders 
as  to  that;  it  would  be  useless  to  send  for  orders,  seeing 
Benedict  would  not  consent  to  the  way  of  cession,  which  was 
neither  just  nor  reasonable.^  This  announcement  was  received 
in  Paris  with  great  chagrin,  and  alienated  many  of  the  nobles 
from  the  cause  of  their  Pope.  The  nine  cardinals  who  were 
then  in  Rome  decided  on  the  12th  October  to  enter  into  con- 
clave; on  the  17th  they  elected  Cosmato  de'  Megliorati  as 
Pope,  who  took  the  name  and  title  of  Innocent  the  Seventh. 

The  new  Pope  was  a  man  of  middle  stature,  born  of  a 
rather  humble  family  of  Sulmona.  He  was  a  Doctor  of  the 
canon  and  the  civil  law,  a  mild,  benign  man,  who  had  been 
fully  trusted  by  his  predecessor,  but  who  was  notwithstand- 
ing utterly  averse  from  pomp  and  simony.  Like  the  other 
cardinals,  he  had  taken  oath  that,  if  elected,  he  would  do  all 
that  in  him  lay  to  end  the  Schism  ;  but  he  never  ceased  to 
*  Religieiix,  iii.  246,  254. 


BOLOGNA  238 

reproach  Pope  Benedict  with  his  failure  to  resign  at  the  death 
of  Boniface  the  Ninth.  He  lost  no  time  himself  in  attempting 
to  keep  his  word,  for  on  the  24th  December  he  issued  invita- 
tions to  all  the  bishops  and  princes  of  his  obedience,  and 
among  others  he  invited  King  Sigismund  of  Hungary  to 
appear  on  the  next  Feast  of  All  Saints  (1st  November  1405), 
to  confer  with  him  as  to  the  most  convenient  way  of  ending 
the  Schism.^  His  troubles  with  the  turbulent  populace  of 
Rome,  and  the  influence  of  King  Ladislas  of  Naples,  were, 
however,  too  much  for  Pope  Innocent.  Ladislas,  whose  astute- 
ness and  craft  the  Visconti  might  have  envied,  had  come  to 
Rome,  not  in  time  to  coerce  the  cardinals,  but  immediately 
after  the  election.  He  had  patched  up  a  peace  in  his  own 
interest,  the  Colonnas  and  the  Savelli  being  on  his  side, 
between  the  Pope  and  the  people  of  Rome ;  he  had  got 
himself  made  Rector  of  the  Campania  and  Maritima  for  five 
years ;  and  he  had  also  induced  the  Pope  to  promise  not  to 
agree  to  any  plan  for  the  union  of  the  Church  which  did  not 
include  the  recognition  of  King  Ladislas  in  the  peaceful  pos- 
session and  title  of  all  his  present  possessions.^  This  scouting 
the  pretensions  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans  to  the  crown  of  Naples 
was  a  fatal  bar  to  any  accommodation  with  France,  and  con- 
sequently there  was  very  little  hope  of  any  agreement  with  the 
Pope  at  Avignon. 

The  French  had  induced  Genoa^  and  Pisa*  to  acknowledge 
the  obedience  of  Benedict.  They  had  made  overtures  to 
Florence,  but  the  wary  republicans  made  answer  that,  although 
there  was  nothing  they  would  more  gladly  see  than  the  termi- 
nation of  the  Schism,  yet  the  matter  was  too  high  for  their 
interference.  Over  Pisa  the  French  and  Florentines  had  been 
like  to  come  to  disagreement,  for  the  Duke  of  Orleans  had 
pretensions  to  the  city.  Gabriel  Maria,  despairing  of  resisting 
the  attacks  of  Florence,  had  thrown  himself  on  the  protection 
of  the  King  of  France,  declaring  that  he  held  his  lands  as  a  fief 
from  Charles  the  Sixth  ;  and  the  Duke  of  Orleans  had  on  the 
24th  May  1404  obtained  the  Signiory  of  Pisa.  In  the  end, 
however,  as  will  be  seen,  the  republic  had  its  way. 

^  Goeller,  12.  ^  Ibid.  12. 

'  Boucicaut,  314.  ^  Capponi,  i,  412, 


234     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

Benedict's   ambassadors,  as   they  journeyed  homeward,   re- 
ceived at  Florence  a  letter   from  the   Cardinal  of  Aquileia, 
suggesting  that  they   should  return   to  Rome   to  renew  the 
negotiations  broken  off  by  the  death  of  Boniface.     They  were 
willing,  and  asked  for  a  safe-conduct,  which  the  new  Pope  for 
some  reason  refused  to  grant.^     On  this  Benedict  determined 
himself  to  go  to  Italy  in  person ;  he  thought  that  when  once 
he  was  on  Italian  soil,  his  rival  might  agree  to  meet  him  and 
to  discuss  the  situation.     This  determination  to  put  the  '  way 
of  convention '  into  practice  met  with  the  warm  approval  of  the 
King  of  France,  and  it  was  resolved  to  levy  a  tenth  from  the 
clergy  for  the  expenses  of  the  journey.    The  tithe  was  to  be  paid 
not  only  by  the  secular  clergy,  but  also  by  the  monks  and  the 
universities.      The  attempt    to   tax   them,  however,   at   once 
aroused  the  wrath  of  the  University  of  Paris,  and  set  them  in 
renewed  opposition   to  Pope  Benedict.     The  recent  freedom 
of  the    Gallican  Church    from    papal    taxation    and    control 
was  a  lesson    which  had   been   learned  and    would  not    soon 
be  forgotten.     The  University  was  eager  to  put  it  in  force 
again. 

Pope  Benedict  meantime  having  received  120,000  francs,  on 
the  7th  May  1405  set  sail  with  six  galleys  from  Nice,  five  or  six 
of  his  cardinals  remaining  behind  through  fear.      He  called  at 
Monaco,  Albenga,  and  Savona,  and  on  the  16th  May  made  a 
triumphal  entry  into  the  port  of  Genoa.     Genoa,  said  one  of 
the  official    orators,   was   to   be    for  Benedict    the  jamia   ad 
tollendum  Schistna,  the  gate  by  which  he  was  to  enter  Italy  in 
order  to  suppress  the  Schism.     He   renewed  his  proposition 
for  a  conference  with  Pope  Innocent ;  but  his  rival  refused  to 
believe  in  his  good  faith  and  declined  to  listen  to  his  pro- 
posals.    Benedict  denounced  Innocent  and  his  cardinals  for 
their  discreditable  conduct,  and   would  have   been   ready  to 
adopt  the  '  way  of  fact,'  could  he  have  obtained  the  necessary 
physical  force.^     No  king,  not  even  the  King  of  France,  would 
help  him  ;  war  broke  out  in  Tuscany  and  forbade  his  further 
advance ;  a  plague  of  dysentery  made  its  appearance  in  Genoa, 
and  Pope  Benedict  was  obliged  on  the  8th  October  to  retrace 
his  steps  to  Savona,  where  he  remained  till  June  1406.^     He 
1  Ehrle,  vii.  587.  ^  Valois,  iii.  405-7.  =*  Ehrle,  vii.  589. 


BOLOGNA  235 

was  forced  to  await  events ;  for  the  present  the  '  way  of  con- 
vention '  was  closed  to  him. 

As  might  have  been  expected,  the  exactions  of  the  Pope 
from  the  Church  since  the  restitution  of  obedience  had  caused 
great  discontent  tlirough  France.  Jean  Petit  complained  that 
when  a  clerk  was  appointed  to  a  benefice,  the  Pope  took  the 
first  year's  revenue,  the  heirs  of  the  deceased  incumbent  took 
the  second,  the  Church  itself  took  the  third,  and  the  new  priest 
had  to  wait  four  or  five  years  before  he  drew  a  penny  from  his 
living.  Bishops  and  abbes  were  obliged  to  sell  or  mortgage 
their  palaces  or  convents  to  satisfy  the  papal  demands ;  services 
and  spoils  had  been  increased ;  the  Pope  had  drawn  from 
France  since  1403  no  less  than  1,200,000  francs,  nearly  a 
kino-'s  ransom.  Three  weeks  later,  Pierre  Plaoul  attacked  the 
letter  from  the  University  of  Toulouse  defending  Pope  Bene- 
dict, and  demanded  the  criminal  trial  of  its  writers.  The 
doctors  of  the  Norman  nation,  Simon  de  Cramaud,  Jean 
Petit,  Gilles  des  Champs,  Jean  Courtecuisse,  with  the  whole 
Faculty  of  Canon  Law  at  their  backs,  were  hot  for  the 
Burgundian  policy  of  subtraction  of  obedience,  in  opposition 
to  the  Faculty  of  Theology  and  the  Orleanist  party.  The 
dispute  was  referred  to  Parliament,  which  naturally  sided  with 
the  lawyers.  Juvenal  des  Ursins,the  King's  advocate,  announced 
that  the  memorial  from  the  University  of  Toulouse  was  to  be 
burned,  and  that  the  King  was  justified  in  opposing  the  Pope's 
frequent  demands  for  money.  As  to  the  subtraction  of  obedi- 
ence, the  question  was  referred  to  the  Council  of  the  Clergy  to 
be  held  at  the  close  of  the  year.  The  dissatisfaction  with 
Benedict  was  not  confined  to  France,  for  the  King  of  Castile 
had  at  the  end  of  1405  sent  an  embassy  proposing  that  both 
Popes  be  required  to  abdicate,  and  that  the  one  who  refused 
be  condemned  as  schismatic. 

The  fourth  Council  of  the  Clergy  was  held  at  Paris,  sixty- 
four  prelates  and  doctors  assembling  at  the  palace  on  the  18th 
November  1406.  Although  not  so  numerously  attended  as 
the  Council  of  1398,  it  lasted  for  five  weeks  and  was  marked 
by  much  heated  argument.  Three  orators  defended  the  cause 
of  the  University  ;  the  same  number  pleaded  that  of  the  Pope. 
Mass  was  celebrated  by  the  Archbishop  of  Rouen,  and  then 


236     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

the  divines  betook  themselves  to  the  small  hall  of  the  palace 
on  the  Seine,  where  in  the  presence  of  the  Dauphin  and  of 
the  Dukes  of  Berri  and  Anjou  the  Doctors  of  the  University 
undertook  to  prove  that,  inasmuch  as  Benedict  had  refused  to 
abdicate,  it  was  necessary  again  to  subtract  the  obedience  of 
France  from  him.  The  discussion  was  opened  by  Pierre-les- 
Boeufs,  followed  by  Jean  Petit.  The  irascible  Norman  char- 
acterised both  Popes  as  schismatic  and  suspected  of  heresy ; 
the  restitution  of  obedience  to  Benedict  had  been  conditional, 
and  the  conditions  had  not  been  fulfilled,  so  that  France  ought 
once  again  to  secede  from  the  Pope  who  had  broken  his  word. 
Then  followed  Simon  de  Cramaud,  the  Patriarch  of  Alexandria. 
His  speech  contained  much  heat  but  very  little  argument. 
He  had  been  on  the  council  of  Popes,  kings,  dukes,  and  princes ; 
he  had  been  ten  years  Chancellor  to  the  Duke  of  Berri ;  yet 
had  he  never  heard  better  or  more  wholesome  reasoning  than 
that  of  the  University.  He  called  the  rival  Popes  foxes  and 
schismatics,  and  cited  a  gloss  from  the  Decretal  to  prove  that 
when  a  Pope  makes  a  schism,  he  should  be  condemned  without 
mercy.  He  saw  no  need  for  appeal  to  Rome ;  French  causes 
should  be  tried  in  France.  His  speech  contained  a  premonition 
of  the  Prao;matic  Sanction  of  Bourges.  He  advocated  the 
renewed  subtraction  of  obedience,  after  which  they  could 
endeavour  to  bring  about  a  joint  council  of  both  obediences, 
in  order  to  procure  the  cession  of  both  Popes. ^  The  advocates 
for  Pope  Benedict  replied  on  Monday  the  3rd  December. 

Guillaume  Filastre  expressed  his  astonishment  that  the 
council  should  take  upon  itself  to  judge  the  Pope;  he  re- 
minded them  how  King  Uzziah  had  been  smitten  with  leprosy 
when  he  interfered  with  the  High  Priest ;  and  this  unfortunate 
reference  to  a  royal  malady  got  the  orator  into  trouble.  The 
Dean  of  Reims  was  followed  next  day  by  the  Archbishop  of 
Tours,  who  pointed  out  that  never  had  any  schism  been  cured 
by  the  '  way  of  cession '  but  rather  by  the  '  way  of  a  council.' 
The  next  session  was  fixed  for  the  11th,  on  which  day  Pierre 
d'Ailly  was  to  speak.  The  Bishop  of  Cambrai  spoke  temper- 
ately and  calmly,  although  at  considerable  length.  He  referred 
to  the  time  when  the  King  had  supported  him  at  the  College 
of  Navarre,  to  the  time  when  he  was  the  King's  Almoner,  to 
'  Chastenet,  Frttives,  118-24. 


BOI.OGNA  237 

the  time  he  had  spent  at  his  dearly  beloved  University,  on 
behalf  of  whose  Faculty  of  Theology  he  was  then  speaking. 
He  claimed  to  represent  twenty-seven  doctors  of  that  Faculty, 
one  of  whom  was  the  Chancellor  of  Notre  Dame,  '  and  what  a 
man  and  what  a  clerk  he  is,  every  one  knows.'  D''Ailly  would 
indeed  have  preferred  that  the  whole  matter  should  have  been 
laid  before  the  Faculty  of  Theology  for  a  pious  opinion  to  be 
referred  to  a  general  council.  He  deprecated  the  '  way  of 
cession,*'  for  they  had  no  assurance  that  the  rival  Pope  would 
abdicate ;  he  preferred  the  convocation  of  a  general  council  of 
their  own  obedience,  which  would  certainly  be  inspired  by  the 
Holy  Spirit.  He  then  proceeded  to  deal  with  the  charges  of 
heresy  and  schismatic  conduct  brought  so  lightly  against  Bene- 
dict ;  the  Patriarch  of  Alexandria  had  even  called  him  a 
heresiarch,  or  prince  of  heretics.  At  this  uprose  in  wrath 
Simond  de  Cramaud,  and  pointed  out  that  he  had  not  spoken 
of  himself  but  on  authority ;  that  it  was  written  that  those 
who  divide  the  Church  are  heretics  and  sin  against  the  article 
of  unity,  and  that  those  who  damnably  hold  the  Church  in 
schism  are  heresiarchs ;  so  said  the  holy  doctors.  The  Bishop 
meekly  remarked  that  the  words  of  the  doctors  were  to  be 
read  with  the  understanding  also ;  to  which  the  Patriarch 
rejoined  that  they  would  settle  their  difference  at  the  next 
general  council.  Pierre  d'Ailly,  after  this  interruption,  pro- 
ceeded to  examine  the  charges  brought  against  Pope  Benedict 
of  heresy  and  schismatic  conduct.  It  was  well  known  that 
both  he  and  Jean  Gerson  declined  to  hold  any  man  a  heretic 
simply  because  he  was  of  the  opposite  obedience ;  if  a  man 
honestly  strove  for  the  reunion  of  the  disrupted  Church,  he 
was  entitled  to  receive  the  right  hand  of  fellowship.  The 
question  whether  the  Pope  was  heretic  and  schismatic,  said 
D'Ailly,  was  a  matter  of  faith,  which  should  in  the  first  place 
have  been  referred  to  the  Faculty  of  Theology ;  and  in  no 
case  could  the  Pope  be  condemned  in  his  absence,  nor  until 
found  guilty  by  a  general  council.  No  one  could  be  held  to 
be  schismatic  who  did  not  pertinaciously  refuse  to  work  for 
the  union  of  the  Chiu'ch  ;  whereas  Benedict  had  sent  to  Rome 
and  to  Florence,  had  sent  ambassadors  to  Boniface,  had  ex- 
pressed his  readiness  to  abdicate  although  on  conditions  which 


238     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

were  not  acceptable  to  those  in  authority,  had  confirmed  his 
willingness  to  do  all  that  he  had  promised  to  do,  and  was  per- 
fectly ready  to  call  a  general  council  of  his  obedience.  How, 
then,  could  they  call  a  Pope  schismatic  who  had  worked  and 
was  ready  still  to  work  for  the  union  ?  Then  as  to  the  charge 
of  heresy.  A  heretic  was  one  who  persistently  doubts  or  errs 
in  the  Catholic  faith.  A  man  is  not  a  heretic  who  honestly 
desires  to  know  the  truth.  There  were  seven  different  descrip- 
tions of  heretics,  but  under  none  of  them  did  Benedict  fall.  It 
was  safer  for  the  King  and  the  kingdom,  concluded  the  speaker, 
to  refer  and  remit  these  matters  to  a  general  council,  than  to 
determine  themselves  or  again  to  subtract  the  spiritual  allegi- 
ance of  France  from  Pope  Benedict.  The  oration  of  the  Bishop 
of  Cambrai  was  universally  admitted  to  have  been  a  master- 
piece. The  University  in  wrath  disclaimed  him.  His  oppo- 
nents claimed  a  right  of  reply. 

One  of  them,  the  Abbe  of  Saint  Michel,  pointed  out  that 
Christ  had  given  a  command  simply  to  feed  His  sheep,  not  to 
shear  them ;  to  which  the  witty  Dean  of  Reims,  the  future 
cardinal,  replied  that  in  his  part  of  the  country  it  was  the 
duty  of  the  good  shepherd  to  shear  his  sheep  as  well  as  to  feed 
them,  from  which  he  concluded  that  the  Pope  had  a  right  to 
do  both.  The  argument  waxed  hot ;  in  vain  did  D'Ailly  play 
the  moderator ;  in  vain  he  urged  that  a  subtraction  of  obedi- 
ence had  already  been  tried  and  had  already  failed  ;  it  was 
clear  that  the  majority  was  in  favour  of  such  a  measure.  On 
the  3rd  January  1407  the  Chancellor  closed  the  debate ;  the 
votes  were  to  be  given  in  writing ;  they  were  delivered,  not  to 
the  Dauphin  or  any  royal  Duke,  but  to  Simon  de  Cramaud, 
Patriarch  of  Alexandria,  much  to  the  disgust  of  the  clergy. 
The  University  obstinately  declared  in  favour  of  a  total  sub- 
traction of  obedience,  but  the  great  majority  were  in  favour 
of  a  partial  measure,  taking  from  the  Pope  the  temporalities, 
but  leaving  him  the  spiritualities,^  the  measure  which  D'Ailly 
himself  had  counselled  about  a  year  before.  The  Patriarch 
himself  agreed  to  this  compromise  (4th  January),  as  did  also 
the  royal  Dukes,  and  the  King  formally  approved  it  on  the 
11th  February.  Before,  however,  the  King  had  signed  the 
^  Christophe,  iii.  224. 


BOLOGNA  239 

ordinances  for  the  renewed  subtraction  of  obedience,  there 
arrived  at  Paris  the  news  of  the  death  of  Pope  Innocent  the 
Seventli  ;  and  there  were  many,  and  Jean  Gerson  was  among 
the  number,  who  hoped  that  the  Roman  cardinals  would 
abstain  from  a  new  election,  and  that  the  Great  Schism  would 
now  be  terminated  by  the  universal  acceptance  of  Benedict  as 
sole  Pope  of  Christendom.^  Their  fond  expectations  were 
doomed  to  speedy  disappointment. 

The  days  of  Pope  Innocent  the  Seventh  had  not  been  long 
in  the  land.  As  Bishop  and  as  Archbishop  he  had  been  known 
and  loved  by  the  people  of  Bologna,  and  his  coronation  was 
welcomed  with  a  grand  joust,  in  which  Paolo  Orsini,  soon  to 
be  called  to  the  new  Pope's  service,  took  part.  The  reign  of 
Innocent  was  chiefly  spent  in  contention  with  the  turbulent 
people  of  Home,  who  had  risen  in  revolt  as  soon  as  the  strong 
hand  of  Boniface  was  removed  by  death.  The  partv  of  the 
Ghibelines,  under  Nicolo  and  Giovanni  Colonna  and  Baptista 
Savelli,  demanded  the  ancient  freedom  and  rights  of  the  city. 
Ladislas  of  Naples,  anxious  that  the  lordship  of  Rome  should 
belong  neither  to  the  Pope  nor  the  people,  but  to  himself, 
appeared  with  an  army,  made  peace  between  the  citizens  and 
the  Pope,  and  was  recognised  as  Protector  of  the  Holy  Roman 
Church.  His  present  design  was  to  gain  the  rule  over  all  those 
States  of  the  Church  which  the  Pope  at  Avignon  had  given 
to  his  rival,  the  Duke  of  Anjou.  But  the  people  of  Rome 
were  very  fickle ;  quarrels  broke  out  again  between  the  Colonnas 
and  the  Pope ;  Ladislas  sent  his  troops  to  aid  the  Colonna 
party ;  but  the  Romans  turned  against  his  general,  the  Count 
of  Troja,  and  against  the  Colonnas.  Certain  heads  of  the 
populace  went  one  day  in  August  to  hold  an  amicable  parley 
with  Innocent,  and  as  they  were  riding  homeward  eleven  of 
them  were  treacherously  seized  by  the  Pope's  nephew,  Ludovico 
de'  Megliorati,  and  were  slain  in  cold  blood.  Horrified  at  the 
outrage,  the  aged  pontiff  escaped  to  Viterbo  from  the  wrath  of 
the  citizens.  Baldassare  Cossa  and  the  men  of  Bologna  heard 
what  had  happened,  and  sent  asking  Innocent  to  take  refuge 
with  them,  offering  him  a  sum  of  money  for  his  expenses.^ 
The  Pope  thanked  them  for  their  kindness  and  courtesy, 
'  Schwab,  190.  -  Raumer,  186. 


240     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

assured  them  that  if  he  had  to  leave  Viterbo  he  would  come  to 
Bologna,  but  bided  his  time.  He  sent  for  Paolo  Orsini  to 
join  his  two  generals,  Mustarda  of  Forli  and  his  nephew 
Ludovico.  Innocent  saw  that  Ladislas  had  been  playing 
entirely  for  his  own  hand,  and  in  June  1406  he  issued  Bulls 
against  him  from  Viterbo ;  but  a  peace  was  arranged  between 
Paolo  Orsini  and  the  Pope's  nephew  on  the  one  side  and  the 
Counts  of  Troja  and  Carrara  on  the  other.  The  Romans  saw 
that  it  was  a  choice  for  them  of  being  ruled  by  the  Pope  or 
by  King  Ladislas,  and  they  therefore  sent  to  Viterbo,  begging 
Innocent  to  return  to  Rome,  and  offering  him  full  dominium 
over  the  city  as  it  had  been  held  by  Boniface.  Their  message 
reached  the  Pope  just  after  he  had  been  afflicted  with  a  stroke 
of  paralysis — a  judgment  of  God,  said  the  pious,  meant  to 
quicken  the  Pope  to  work  for  the  union  of  the  Church. 
Innocent  was  delighted,  and  returned  triumphantly  to  Rome. 
He  had  been  unable  to  bring  off'  the  council  which  he  had 
proposed;  he  had  postponed  it  in  the  first  instance  to  the  1st 
May,  and  had  invited  the  German  prelates  to  take  part 
therein,  but  they  were  too  engrossed  in  what  was  happening  at 
Marbach  to  respond.  The  Pope  himself  was  not  at  Rome  at 
that  time,  and  had  been  absolutely  unable  to  hold  the  council 
as  he  had  designed.  Even  if  it  had  been  held,  it  could  have 
eff'ected  little,  regard  being  had  to  the  binding  nature  of  the 
Pope's  agreement  with  King  Ladislas.  King  Henry  of  Castile 
sent  ambassadors  to  him  and  to  his  rival,  urging  them  to 
abdicate ;  but  Innocent  had  called  his  council,  and  the  ambas- 
sadors declined  to  disclose  his  reply  to  Pope  Benedict.  The 
King  then  sent  ambassadors  to  his  own  Pope  to  persuade  him 
to  call  a  council ;  Benedict  issued  Bulls  for  a  council  in  Mar- 
seilles, if  practicable;  if  not,  the  council  was  to  be  held  at 
Perpignan.^  Before  the  Bulls  were  published,  however,  there 
came  the  news  of  his  rival's  death.  Innocent  did  not  live  long 
after  his  return  to  Rome  :  he  died  on  the  6th  November  1406 
from  a  third  attack  of  apoplexy,  his  mouth  being  twisted  over 
his  shoulder — a  sure  sign,  according  to  the  clergy,  of  God's 
judgment  on  him  for  not  ending  the  Schism. 

Baldassare  Cossa  meantime  had  not  been  idle  at  Bologna. 

^  Ehrle,  vii.  593. 


BOLOGNA  241 

Beside  otlier  works  of  public  utility,  he  had  pushed  on  the 
erection  of  the  new  fortress  at  the  Porta  Galliera,  which  he 
had  commenced  as  soon  as  Pope  Boniface,  shortly  before  his 
death,  had  ordered  the  destruction  of  the  three-year-old 
fortress  of  the  Visconti.  He  had  also,  as  already  mentioned, 
finally  settled  the  account  with  the  Lord  of  Faenza.  He  had 
discovered  a  new  plot  to  assassinate  himself  and  to  hand  over 
Bologna  to  Nanne  Gozzadini.  The  traitors,  as  the  historian 
remarks,  never  learned  to  work  secretly;^  and  they  had 
suffered  the  necessary  reward  for  their  crime.  The  arch  con- 
spirator, Nanne  himself,  did  not  venture  as  far  as  Bologna,  but 
remained  at  Ferrara,  where  he  died  in  the  arms  of  the  Marquess 
on  the  29th  July  1407,  bitterly  regretting  the  day  when  he 
had  refused  the  Signiory  of  his  native  city.  Forli  also  fell 
before  the  arms  of  the  cardinal,  who  built  a  citadel  there  ;  and 
in  May  of  the  same  year  (1406)  he  drove  back  and  dispersed 
the  exiles  from  Perugia,  who  had  assembled  in  the  marches 
with  a  view  to  machinations  on  that  papal  city.^  But  his 
hardest  bit  of  warfare  had  been  that  waged  with  the  Constable 
Alberigo  da  Barbiano. 

Bologna  was  dependent  for  its  supply  of  grain  on  the  country 
round,  and  was  subject  to  scarcity  or  famine  with  the  variation 
of  the  seasons.  There  was  sucli  a  time  of  scarcity  in  the 
spring  of  1405.  On  a  previous  occasion  Baldassare  Cossa  had 
taken  an  inventory  of  all  the  grain  in  the  town,  and  had  con- 
fiscated all  that  was  found  and  had  not  been  declared,  selling 
the  corn  thus  obtained,  and  returning  the  price  to  the  owners. 
This  rough-and-ready  method  had  tided  over  the  former 
difficultv  without  inflicting  too  great  hardship  on  the  Bolognese. 
On  the  present  occasion  he  had  arranged  for  a  large  convoy  of 
grain  to  be  brought  from  the  Romagna.  It  was  intercepted 
by  the  Constable.  The  Legate  sent  messengers  to  demand 
the  grain,  but  they  returned  empty-handed.  The  Constable 
on  his  side  demanded  Faenza  and  the  Castle  of  San  Pietro, 
and  presented  a  long  bill  for  arrears  of  pay  due,  as  he  said,  to 
him  for  his  services  to  Bologna.  These  services  related  to  the 
war  with  Milan,  when  Bologna  was  captured  by  the  Duke 
Gian  Galeazzo.^  This  was  before  the  Legate's  time,  and  he 
^  Ghirar,  ii.  570.  *  Tartini,  ii.  566.  *  Ibid.  ii.  563. 


242     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

accordingly  referred   the  claim  to    the    Council   of  the  city. 
The  councillors  rejected  the  claim,  and  voted  for  war  with  the 
Constable.     To  secure  a  present  supply  of  grain,  the  Legate 
ceded  to  Florence  a  certain  place,  named  Piancaldolo,  famous 
for  the  mill-stones  made  there.     The  war  with  the  Constable 
was  short  and  satisfactory.     He  had  rejected  the  mediation  of 
the  Marquess  of  Ferrara,  of  Carlo  Malatesta,  and  others.     He 
was  defeated,  and  the  Castle  of  Lojano  and  other  places  fell 
into  the  hands   of  the  masterful   cardinal   before  peace  was 
made.       By    thus    capturing   the   villages    of  the    Constable, 
Baldassare   Cossa   still   further  incurred    the  wrath    of  King 
Ladislas  of  Naples,  who  announced  that  Alberigo  da  Barbiano 
was  under  his  special  protection.^     As  soon  as  peace  was  made 
the  Legate  put  to  death  one  of  his  own  generals  who  had 
refused  to  follow  him  when  ordered.     The  Castle  of  Crevalcore 
was  also  recovered  for  the  Church  from  the  Marquess  of  Ferrara. 
In  the  species  of  guerilla  warfare  which  was  then  so  common 
over  Northern  Italy,  the  Papal  Legate  could  hold  his  own  with 
the  best  condottiere  generals.     He  met  force  with  force ;  he 
was  ready  with  a  word   and  a  blow,  and  the  blow  first ;  he 
detected  treason    before    it   was   ripe,  punished    the   traitors 
ruthlessly,  and   pardoned  the  innocent  liberally.-     The  tur- 
bulence of  the  men  of  Bologna,  and  the  need  for  a  strong  arm 
over  them,  may  be   gauged   by  the  fact  that  the  Castello  di 
Galliera  founded  by  Baldassare  Cossa,  was  five  times  built,  and 
five  times  destroyed  by  popular  tumult.     In  a  time  of  restless 
warfare  and  intrigue,  the  Papal  Legate   was  a  match  for  his 
enemies.     He  ruled  with  an  iron  hand,  but  his  rule  brought 
peace  and  prosperity  to  Bologna,  and  the  citizens  were  well 
pleased  with  his  government.^     When  he  heard  of  the  death 
of  Pope  Innocent  the  Seventh,  he  started  for  Rome  to  take 
part  in  the  conclave,  but  on  the  road  he  was  met  by  the  news 
that  the  cardinals  had  already  met,  so  that,  knowing  that  his 
presence  would  be  useless,  he  returned  to  Bologna. 

All  Europe  was  at  this  time  most  desirous  that  the  disruption 

in  the  Church  should  be  healed.     It  was  the  manifest  duty  of 

the  Emperor  to  convoke  a  Council  for  that  purpose ;  but  the 

sloth  and  incapacity  of  King  Wenzel,  who  had  neglected  even 

'  Mur,  XX.  310.  ^  Ghirar,  ii.  571,  ^  Raumer,  186. 


BOLOGNA  243 

to  get  himself  crowned  Emperor,  had  proved  a  fatal  hindrance 
in  the  fourteenth  century,  and  from  the  close  of  that  century 
onwards  the  country  which  should  have  been  foremost  in  the 
work  of  healing,  was  itself  suffering  not  only  from  the  religious 
but  also  from  a  civil  schism.  Nor  was  there  apparently  more 
hope  from  WenzePs  rival.  Very  gradually  had  the  virtuous 
and  well-intentioned  King  Rupert  strengthened  his  position 
in  the  western  half  of  Germany,  until  in  1405  he  there  reached 
the  zenith  of  his  power.  Unfortunately  for  him,  his  virtues 
were  as  fatal  to  him  as  his  weakness.  He  endeavoured  to  do 
the  work  of  an  Emperor  by  maintaining  the  public  peace  and 
order ;  and  to  that  end  he  destroyed  nine  castles  in  the  Wet- 
terau,  whence  had  been  wont  to  sally  bands  of  freebooters, 
murdering  and  pillaging  the  merchants  of  Swabia,  Thuringia, 
Hesse,  and  the  Wetterau.  The  work  of  destruction  was  good 
and  necessary  ;  it  was  accomplished  in  the  interest  of  the 
welfare  of  the  Empire  ;  but  the  castles  were,  as  it  happened, 
within  the  boundaries  and  jurisdiction  of  the  Archbishopric 
of  Mainz.  Rupert  had  forgotten  that  '  no  man  can  enter 
into  a  strong  man's  house  and  spoil  his  goods,  except  he  will 
first  bind  the  strong  man.'  The  King  had  neglected  to  bind 
that  very  strong  man,  John  of  Nassau,  Archbishop  of  Mainz. 

Henceforth  it  was  to  be  a  duel  between  Rupert,  King  of  the 
Romans,  and  the  First  Elector  of  the  Empire,  and  the  Elector 
was  to  prove  the  better  man.  John  of  Nassau  lost  no  time. 
On  the  14th  September  the  League  of  Marbach  was  made 
between  him,  the  Count  of  Wuerttemberg,  the  Markgraf  of 
Baden,  the  citizens  of  Strasburg,  and  seventeen  imperial  cities 
of  Swabia.  Its  ostensible  purpose  was  the  mutual  defence  and 
protection  of  the  parties  thereto ;  but  the  confederacy  was 
really  directed  against  King  Rupert,  and  he  knew  it.  He 
resolved,  if  possible,  to  checkmate  his  opponents.  He  as- 
sembled a  diet  at  Mainz  on  the  6th  January,  its  express  object 
beins  to  dissolve  this  confederation  which  had  been  made 
without  his  authority  and  without  the  permission  of  the 
Empire ;  he  harangued  the  confederates,  pointing  out  how 
false  they  were  to  the  principles  of  the  Empire  ;  he  even  sup- 
plicated them  to  abandon  their  league  ;  but  they  obstinately 
stood   their  ground.      The    fight   was    really    as    to    whether 


244     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

Germany  should  be  an  Empire  of  a  Confederation,  whether 
the  kingly  principle  or  that  of  confederacies  should  govern 
the  Empire  and  mould  its  future.  King  Rupert  was  obliged 
to  give  way,  and  on  the  19th  December  1406  he  formally 
admitted  that  confederacies  to  secure  the  public  peace  might 
lawfully  be  made  without  his  permission.  The  spirit  of 
confederacy,  whereby  cities,  nobles,  or  knights,  regardless  of 
the  royal  authority  and  disregarding  the  wider  interest  of  the 
kingdom,  bound  themselves  for  short  terms  of  years  to  act 
together  for  their  common  defence  or  advancement,  waxed 
stronger  and  stronger  throughout  the  Empire;  and  at  the 
same  time  the  position  of  the  King  of  the  Romans  became 
more  ineffective  and  superfluous.  The  Empire  was  in  danger 
of  losing  its  unity  and  of  splitting  up  into  a  number  of  tem- 
porary confederations,  with  little  continuity  of  purpose,  and 
with  no  settled  central  force  for  guidance  or  preservation 
amid  the  vortex  of  European  politics. 

With  the  death  about  this  time  (6th  November  1406)  of 
Pope  Innocent  the  Seventh,  and  the  rise  to  supreme  politico- 
ecclesiastical  power  in  Italy  of  the  Papal  Legate,  Baldassare 
Cossa,  the  friend  of  John  of  Nassau,  there  appeared  in  the 
Empire  a  third  party  in  the  Church,  ostensibly  headed  by  the 
Elector  of  Saxony,  and  aiming  at  neutrality  between  the  rival 
Popes.  Henceforth  the  strife  lay  between  this  party  under  John 
of  Nassau,  Archbishop  of  Mainz,  and  the  old  orthodox  Roman 
party,  under  King  Rupert.  But  the  King's  power  and  influ- 
ence were  visibly  diminishing ;  he  was  obliged  in  more  than 
one  instance  to  go  back  on  his  former  virtuous  resolutions  in 
the  matters  of  tolls  and  of  hypothecations.  Certain  of  the 
nobles  and  cities,  hitherto  loyal  to  him,  were  making  terms 
with  Kino-  Wenzel ;  his  only  effective  ally  in  Italy,  Francesco 
of  Carrara,  had  been  imprisoned  and  executed  by  the  Venetians ; 
and  the  Burgundian  dukes,  John  and  Anthony,  were  drawing 
nearer  to  King  Wenzel,  thus  making  good  to  that  King  the 
loss  of  influence  lie  sustained  through  the  murder  (1407)  of 
the  Duke  of  Orleans. 

As  soon  as  Pope  Innocent  the  Seventh  died,  Baldassare  Cossa 
attempted  to  go  to  Rome  for  the  new  election,  but,  as  already 
mentioned,  had  returned  to  Bologna.    Next  year  (1407),  at  the 


BOLOGNA  245 

desire  of  the  new  Pope  Gregory  the  Twelfth,  a  council  was  held 
in  the  city  to  consider  the  best  means  of  ending  the  Schism. 
The  citizens  offered  Bologna  for  the  meeting  of  the  two  Popes, 
and  agreed  to  give  hostages  for  the  safety  of  Benedict.  To 
this  end  the  Papal  Legate  sent  two  ambassadors  to  Avignon 
on  the  9tli  March,  but  they  returned  on  the  6th  May,  having 
effected  nothing.  The  Spaniard  was  not  the  man  to  trust 
himself  in  the  hands  of  Baldassare  Cossa.  The  '  way  of 
cession"*  had  been  tried  against  him;  the  University  of  Paris, 
no  less  than  the  French  court,  had  insisted  on  this  plan ;  the 
more  moderate  party,  headed  by  Pierre  d'Ailly  and  Jean 
Gerson,  had  deemed  this  to  be  the  most  efficacious  remedy. 
But  the  plan  had  failed.  Pope  Benedict  the  Thirteenth  had 
from  the  beginning  declared  himself  against  it ;  he  had  pointed 
out  its  inherent  weakness  ;  on  grounds  which  were  certainly 
plausible  he  had  refused  to  agree  to  abdicate  ;  and  the  attempt 
to  bring  about  or  force  his  abdication  by  a  subtraction  of 
obedience  from  him  had  been  made,  and  it  had  utterly  failed. 
His  representations  had  been  scouted,  and  the  proposals  which 
he  had  made  had  never  been  fairly  considered.  He  still 
professed  himself  to  be  as  anxious  as  ever  to  end  the  Schism  ; 
but  he  was  in  favour  of  a  different  plan  ;  he  was  in  favour, 
and  had  always  been  in  favour,  of  the  '  way  of  convention.' 
The  slightly  built,  handsome  little  Pope  was  a  man  of  great 
fixity  of  purpose  and  determination  of  character ;  his  ad- 
versaries had  tried  their  '  way  of  cession  *■  with  him  and  had 
failed ;  he  desired  now  to  try  the  method  which  he  had 
advocated  from  the  commencement :  he  wanted  to  meet  his 
adversary  in  the  way  and  to  confer  with  him. 

Benedict  was  now,  after  his  escape  from  captivity,  in  a  much 
stronger  position  than  before.  France  had  returned  to  its 
obedience  ;  Provence  was  devoted  to  him.  Backed  by  the  Duke 
of  Orleans  and  the  University  of  Toulouse,  his  was  henceforth 
the  dominating  figure  in  the  Riviera.  He  no  longer  remained 
permanently  at  Avignon  ;  he  stayed  at  the  Cistercian  monastery 
in  the  island  of  Lerins ;  he  visited  Nice  and  Villa  Franca  for 
change  of  air ;  he  knew  the  pirate  city  Monaco,  of  the  Grimaldi, 
and  the  picturesque  castle,  Dolce  Acqua,  of  the  Doria.  The 
country  along  the  coast,  where  the  ruins  of  old  castles  still  crown 


246     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

the  rocky  precipices  jutting  up  from  fir-clad  hills,  where  the 
grey-green  olive  trees  spring  from  the  dull  red  earth  and  the 
dull  grey  rock,  where  the  almond  and  the  orange  brighten  the 
most  sombre  months  of  winter,  the  Riviera  was  the  country  of 
Benedict  from  the  time  he  escaped  to  Chateau  Renard  until 
the  time  when  he  started  for  Savona  and  Porto  Venere.  He 
was  now  determined  to  propose  a  meeting  at  which  he  and 
his  rival  might  arrange  for  the  future  unity  of  the  Church.  If 
he  might  remain  Pope,  he  was  willing  that  his  rival  should  be 
first  cardinal ;  and  he  had  no  doubt  as  to  the  result  of  the 
meeting  :  he  meant  to  remain  Pope. 

The  death  of  Innocent  the  Seventh  and  the  election  of  his 
successor  was  apparently  to  bring  Benedicfs  '  way  of  conven- 
tion' within  the  range  of  practical  politics. 


THE  WAY  OF  CONVENTION        247 


CHAPTER    VII 

THE    WAY    OF    CONVENTION 

One  method  of  ending  the  Schism  which,  to  us  after  the  event, 
seems  tolerably  simple,  but  which  did  not  until  August  1407  ^ 
enter  into  the  serious  contemplation  of  any  of  the  reigning 
powers  at  the  time,  would  have  been  to  procure  from  each 
College  of  Cardinals  the  assurance  that,  in  the  event  of  the 
death  of  its  Pope,  it  would  not  at  once  proceed  to  a  new 
election,  but  would  allow  time  for  negotiation.  Pope  Benedict 
the  Thirteenth  had  not,  it  must  be  remembered,  at  any  time 
prior  to  the  subtraction  of  obedience,  promised  that  he  would 
resign  on  the  death  of  his  rival ;  and  all  the  world  knew  what 
little  consideration  he  gave  to  any  promise  extracted  from  him 
during  that  time  of  stress.  Naturally  neither  College  would 
have  given  an  assurance  to  abstain  from  a  new  election  unless 
certain  that  its  rival  would  do  the  like ;  but  Charles  the  Sixth 
and  King  Wenzel,  acting  in  concert,  should  have  been  able  to 
procure  such  assurances  from  the  respective  Colleges  of  the 
Popes  whose  obedience  they  acknowledged.  As  soon  as  either 
Pope  actually  did  die,  earnest  endeavours  were  made  to  procure 
the  postponement  of  the  new  election ;  but  in  those  days  of 
slow  communication,  each  College  moreover  being  loth  to 
trust  itself  to  the  tender  mercies  of  a  Pope  who  had  excom- 
municated it,  and  being  hence  in  a  hurry  to  protect  itself  by 
a  fresh  election,  these  endeavours  were  always  too  late.  After 
the  death  of  Pope  Clement,  the  news  took  six  days  to  reach 
Paris ;  and  the  King's  messenger,  riding  his  hardest,  took  three 
days  to  reach  Avignon,  and  the  cardinals  were  entering  into 
conclave  when  he  arrived.  The  news  of  the  death  of  Pope 
Innocent  for  some  reason  took  more  than  six  weeks  to  travel 

'  Schwab,  205. 


248     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

from  Rome  to  Paris.  Pope  Benedict  had  already  written  to 
the  magistrates  of  Rome  and  to  certain  members  of  the  Orsini 
family,  asking  them  to  persuade  the  cardinals  not  to  proceed 
to  a  new  election,  offering  to  join  them,  and  to  sacrifice  every- 
thing for  the  union  of  the  Church ;  but  they  apparently 
believed  as  little  in  his  sincerity  as  had  the  late  Pope  before 
them.  Before  the  death  of  Innocent,  the  Duke  of  Berri  had 
written  to  the  cardinals,  entreating  them  not  to  elect  a  new 
Pope  on  his  death ;  ^  and  Gilles  des  Champs,  '  master  of 
theology  and  counsellor  to  the  King  of  France,'  being  then  in 
Rome,  did  his  best  to  delay  the  entry  into  conclave. 

When  the  news  of  Innocent's  death  reached  Paris,  the  desire 
was  strongly  expressed  that  a  new  election  should  be  post- 
poned, that  Benedict  should  be  required  to  resign,  and  that  the 
united  Colleges  of  Cardinals  should  together  elect  a  new  Pope 
for  Christendom,  and  thus  terminate  the  Schism.  King  Charles 
the  Sixth,  by  the  advice  of  his  Council,  wrote  on  the  23rd 
December  to  the  fourteen  cardinals  then  in  Rome,  begging 
them  to  postpone  their  entrance  into  conclave  pending  receipt 
of  an  embassy  from  him.  Giovanni  the  Dominican  at  Florence, 
as  soon  as  he  heard  of  the  Pope's  death,  went  to  the  magistrate 
and  besought  him  to  send  an  embassy  to  the  cardinals  to 
postpone  a  fresh  election.  Giovanni  himself  was  despatched 
in  the  name  of  the  Republic  to  the  Cdllege ;  but,  like  an 
austere  friar,  he  travelled  on  foot.  Both  letter  and  friar 
arrived  too  late.  The  cardinals  had  at  first  hesitated,  but 
they  finally,  notwithstanding  the  opposition  of  the  Cardinal 
of  Aquileia,  decided  to  proceed  to  election,  and  they  had 
already  entered  into  conclave :  they  feared  disturbances  in 
Rome,  they  feared  the  machinations  of  King  Ladislas.^  A 
small  window  in  the  building  where  the  cardinals  were  bricked 
up  was,  however,  opened,  and  through  this  the  friar  delivered 
his  message.  His  recommendation  was  declined,  but  he  was 
told  the  comforting  tale  that  he  whom  the  cardinals  would 
elect  might  be  considered  rather  as  their  proctor  to  effect  a 
union  by  abdication  than  as  an  actual  Pope.^ 

The  cardinals  themselves  were  unfeignedly  anxious  to  heal 

^  Sybel,  xvii.  80.  2  ^^x.  xix.  925;  Sybel,  xvii.  81. 

'  Brieger,  ix.  245-6. 


THE  WAY  OF  CONVENTION         249 

the  disruption  in  the  Church,  and  before  entering  the  conclave 
they  had  determined  to  clear  themselves  in  the  eyes  of  all  of  any 
suspicion  of  guilt  in  prolonging  the  Schism.  They  accordingly, 
as  a  preliminary  to  the  election,  required  each  one  of  their  num- 
ber to  swear  (a)  that  the  new  pontiff  would  abdicate  if  his  rival 
abdicated  or  died,  and  the  cardinals  of  both  obediences  desired 
to  unite ;  (b)  that  within  one  month  of  his  election  the  new 
Pope  would  notify  to  his  rival,  to  the  King  of  the  Romans, 
and  to  the  other  Kings  of  Christendom,  his  election  and  his 
readiness  to  abdicate  or  to  take  any  other  reasonable  method 
of  ending  the  Schism,  and  that  within  three  months  he  would 
send  plenipotentiaries  to  choose  a  fitting  place  for  negotiating 
the  Union;  and  (c)  that  pending  this  negotiation  he  would 
create  no  new  cardinals,  nor  within  a  year  afterwards,  unless 
through  the  fault  of  his  rival  no  such  result  had  followed.^ 
The  cardinals  then  entered  into  conclave.  It  was  near  mid- 
night on  the  29th  before  they  had  made  their  choice.  In  the 
morning  twilight  of  the  30th  November  1406,  a  wet  and 
cloudy  day,  the  bells  rang  out  and  the  cardinals  announced 
that  they  had  elected  as  Pope  Angelo  Corrario,  a  noble 
Venetian,  about  eighty  years  of  age.  Patriarch  of  Constanti- 
nople and  Cardinal-Priest  of  Saint  Mark,  who  took  the  title 
of  Gregory  the  Twelfth.  Gregory  the  Eleventh  had  terminated 
the  captivity  at  Avignon ;  Gregory  the  Twelfth  meant  to 
terminate  the  Great  Schism :  such  at  least  was  his  intention 
on  Saint  Andrew's  Day  1406. 

The  new  Pope  was  a  tall  man,  mere  skin  and  bone,  but  like 
many  a  thin  man  very  fond  of  a  good  meal,  and  inordinately 
fond  of  sugar.  He  was  pious,  a  friend  of  ascetics  and  mystics  ; 
somewhat  of  a  fanatic,  convinced  of  the  righteousness  of  his 
own  designs,  and  apt  thereby  to  deceive  the  world  and  himself 
also  ;  a  mixture  of  good  intentions  and  weak  will,  of  impetuous 
enthusiasm  and  of  what  looked  like  crafty  self-seeking.  The 
cardinals  had  elected  him  because  they  deemed  that  he  had 
one  foot  in  the  grave  and  would  have  time  only  to  abdicate 
before  he  died  ;  they  had  forgotten  that  bugbear  and  scandal 
of  the  papacy,  the  Pope's  nephew.  Urban  the  Sixth  had  been 
hampered  by  his  nephew,  the  brutal  Butillo,  who  had  ravished 
^  Sybel,  xvii.  85. 


250    IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

a  high-born  nun  and  brought  about  trouble  with  Charles  of 
Durazzo.  Innocent  the  Seventh  had  been  hampered  by  his 
nephew,  the  treacherous  Ludovico,  who  had  captured  and 
slain  eleven  peaceful  Roman  citizens  and  had  caused  his  uncle's 
flight  to  Viterbo.  Now  the  cardinals  had  elected  a  man  with 
half  a  dozen  nephews,  all  hungering  clamorously  for  loaves 
and  fishes.  The  new  Pope  was  lamentably  under  the  influence 
of  his  relatives,  who  were  ever  ready  to  play  on  his  fears  and 
apprehensions  for  their  own  advantage.  He  was  a  pitifully 
nervous  old  man,  always  ready  to  listen  to  those  about  him 
rather  than  to  make  up  his  mind  for  himself.  From  such  a 
character  it  was  vain  to  expect  consistency  of  action ;  and  if 
Benedict  the  Thirteenth  was  like  to  become  a  hardened 
absolutist,  Gregory  the  Twelfth  was  like  to  become  to  outward 
appearance  a  consummate  actor.  For  such  a  Pope  Baldassare 
Cossa,  a  man  of  determination  and  action,  had  naturally  no 
more  respect  and  sympathy  than  had  his  patron,  Boniface  the 
Ninth,  before  him.^ 

Pope  Gregory  was  crowned  in  Saint  Peter"'s  on  the  19th 
December  1406.  He  thanked  God  with  tears  in  his  eyes  that 
he  had  been  chosen  as  the  means  of  restoring  unity  to  the 
Church,  and  he  was  in  earnest  when  he  did  so.-  No  sooner 
was  he  elected  than  he  ratified  his  former  vow  and  exhorted 
his  cardinals  to  work  with  him  for  the  peace  of  the  Church. 
He  wrote  to  the  Pope  and  cardinals  at  Avignon;  he  sent 
forth  an  encyclical  apprising  the  whole  world  of  his  resolution. 
The  abdication  of  a  legitimate  Pope  might,  he  admitted,  be 
attended  with  inconvenience,  but  this  was  nothing  compared 
with  the  evil  of  the  prolongation  of  the  Schism.  He  had 
ascended  the  apostolic  seat  not  without  apprehension,  he  would 
descend  readily  and  joyfully;  far  from  weighing  on  him,  the 
obligation  which  he  had  contracted  charmed  him,  for  he  was 
now  so  old  that  he  had  no  further  hopes  in  this  world.  Such 
was  the  old  man's  protestation,  and  it  was  truthful  when  first 
uttered.  Great  and  universal  was  the  joy  at  his  accession  and 
his  profession  ;  he  was  hailed  as  an  '  angel '  of  light.^  Gerson 
preached  an  eloquent  sermon  rendering  thanks  to  the  Almighty; 
the  bells  rang  out  everywhere  for  the  approaching  reunion  of 
1  Mur.  iii.  837.  ^  Erler,  156.  ^  De  Schismate,  228. 


rori',  Gkkcoky  thk  Twki.i- ih. 


THE  WAY  OF  CONVENTION        251 

the  Church ;  Siena  and  Bologna  offered  their  shelter  for  the 
meeting  of  the  two  pontiff's ;  the  only  fear  was  lest  Gregory 
might  not  live  long  enough  to  carry  through  the  noble  work. 
'  I  am  resolved  to  go  wherever  the  union  may  be  effected,'  said 
he  to  his  court ;  '  if  I  have  no  galleys,  I  will  go  in  an  open 
boat ;  if  I  have  to  go  by  land  and  can  find  no  horses,  I  will 
travel  on  foot,  staff"  in  hand,  rather  than  fail  of  my  word.' 
It  was  impossible  to  speak  more  fairly  or  more  clearly. 

The  new  Pope  had,  however,  no  powerful  civil  authority, 
such  as  that  of  France,  to  help  him  forward  in  his  design. 
The  Italian  policy  of  King  Rupert  had  ended  in  utter  failure ; 
that  of  King  Ladislas  was  opposed  to  any  such  scheme  of 
abdication  and  of  reunion  of  the  Papacy.  Gregory  had  over- 
looked this  obstacle.  He  at  first  fixed  on  Bologna  as  the 
most  fitting  place  of  meeting  for  himself  and  Benedict  to  fulfil 
their  grand  renunciation.  The  council  of  the  city  was 
delighted  with  the  proposal ;  and  the  Cardinal  Legate,  who 
had  just  escaped  from  another  attempted  assassination,^  wrote 
to  advise  Gregory  accordingly.  The  Pope  acknowledged  the 
grateful  affection  of  the  men  of  Bologna;  and  Baldassare 
Cossa  on  the  9th  March  despatched  two  envoys  to  Pope 
Benedict,  offering  him  the  use  of  the  city  and  desiring  to  know 
what  hostages  he  would  wish  delivered  to  him.  The  Pope 
thanked  them  for  their  off'er,  but  said  that  he  had  two  days 
before  written  to  Rome  agreeing  to  Savona  as  the  place  of 
meeting.  The  ambassadors  returned  to  Bologna  on  the  6th 
May,  just  as  the  warlike  Legate  had  recaptured  the  Rocca  di 
Ravaldino,  taken  from  the  men  of  Forli,  and  had  celebrated 
the  event  with  grand  joustings  and  rejoicings  for  three  days, 
the  CardinaFs  own  jousters  wearing  green,  white,  and  red.^ 

Pope  Benedict  was  at  Marseilles  with  his  cardinals  when  on 
the  14th  January  1407  he  received  the  first  letter  from  Pope 
Gregorv ;  and  on  the  31st  he  repHed  in  characteristic  earnest 
fashion.  He  was  overwhelmed  with  joy  ;  vainly  had  he  worked 
with  Boniface  the  Ninth  and  with  Innocent  the  Seventh  with- 
out obtaining  any  definite  answer;  but  happy  was  the  man  to 
whom  God  had  reserved  the  glory  of  terminating  the  Schism. 
Gladly  would  he  and  his  cardinals  meet  his  rival  and  the  rival 
1  Ghirar,  ii.  572.  "  Mur.  xviii.  594  :  Ghirar,  ii.  574. 


252     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

cardinals  to  confer  with  them  in  some  sure  and  convenient 
place ;  gladly  would  he  resign  his  rights  if  his  rival  did  the 
same,  in  order  that  the  two  Colleges  of  Cardinals  might  unite 
and  together  elect  the  future  Pope.  He  at  once  sent  the 
safe-conduct  for  Gregory's  embassy.  All  was  fair  to  outward 
seeming  though  the  negotiations  might  present  difficulties. 

The  answer  reached  the  Pope  at  Rome  about  the  middle  of 
February.  Malatesta  di  Pesaro  offered  to  be  of  the  embassy, 
and  came  to  Rome  with  a  stately  following  and  forty  horses. 
Seeing  that  the  Pope  was  straitened  for  cash,  this  was  an  offer 
not  to  be  lightly  set  aside.  To  the  disgust  and  distrust  of  the 
cardinals,  whose  advice  he  had  promised  to  follow,  Gregory 
declined  the  offer  of  Malatesta,  and  chose  instead  his  own 
nephew  Antonio,  associating  with  him  his  treasurer,  William 
the  Norman,  Bishop  of  Todi,  and  a  celebrated  Doctor  of  Law, 
Antonio  di  Butrio.  By  the  27th  February  everything  was 
ready  for  their  departure,  yet  they  were  detained  in  Rome  for 
three  weeks  longer,  and  only  left  on  the  18th  or  19th  March 
when  the  three  months  stipulated  in  the  oath  had  fully 
expired.^  The  nephew  might  be  trusted  to  safeguard  his  own 
and  his  uncle's  interest ;  the  two  other  ambassadors  were 
stalwart  advocates  of  the  union.  The  cardinals  at  Pisa,  how- 
ever, subsequently  declared  that  the  two  latter  were  merely 
men  of  straw,  and  that  his  nephew  alone  was  entrusted  with 
Gregory's  real  instructions  -  and  with  a  sealed  Bull. 

On  Thursday  in  Easter  week  (1st  April)  the  three  ambassa- 
dors landed  at  Marseilles,  and  on  the  3rd  were  received  by 
Benedict.  Antonio  Corrario  began  by  demanding  from  the 
Spanish  Pope  a  declaration  that  he  was  ready  to  abdicate,  to 
which  Benedict  replied  by  reminding  him  that  he  had  been 
present  at  the  election  of  Pope  Urban  the  Sixth,  and  knew 
that  it  was  invalid,  and  that  consequently  he,  Benedict,  was 
rightful  Pope.  Antonio  then  declared  that  he  had  never  been 
in  favour  of  any  '  way  of  convention,'  that  his  uncle  had  no 
doubt  as  to  his  being  the  rightful  Pope,  but  wished  to  avoid 
all  discussions  of  a  difficult  question.  On  this  basis,  therefore, 
the  discussion  as  to  the  place  of  meeting  proceeded.  Florence 
and  Naples  were  suggested,  but  not  Bologna  ;  ^  the  ambassadors 
^  Sybel,  xvii.  112.  ^  Mansi,  xxvi.  1203.  ^  Tartini,  ii.  518. 


THE  WAY  OF  CONVENTION        253 

proposed  Rome,  Viterbo,  Todi,  Siena,  and  Lucca ;  Benedict 
proposed  Marseilles,  Nice,  Frejus,  Genoa,  and  Savona.  The 
dispute  waxed  hot,  and  the  ambassadors  threatened  to  break 
off  negotiations  and  to  betake  themselves  to  Paris. ^  Benedict 
begged  them  not  to  leave  Marseilles.  They  asked  for  three 
persons,  and  three  only,  to  meet  them  and  to  consult.  Bene- 
dict agreed,  and  appointed  the  Cardinal  de  Thury,  the  Bishop 
of  Lerida,  and  Franz  of  Aranda.  These  tiiree  met  Gregory's 
three  ambassadors,  and  fixed  on  Savona  as  the  place  of  meeting. 
Antonio  showed  them  a  letter  of  his  uncle  declaring  his 
willingness  to  go  even  to  Ghent  or  Avignon  if  necessary.  It 
was  agreed  that  the  two  Popes  should  meet  by  Michaelmas  or 
at  any  rate  by  All  Saints'  Day  (1st  November)  to  decide  on 
and  to  accomplish  their  mutual  abdication.  Each  was  to  be 
accompanied  by  the  same  number  of  armed  galleys,  not  more 
than  eight  in  all ;  and  mutual  precautions  were  arranged,  as  if 
two  rival  corsairs,  instead  of  the  two  heads  of  Christendom, 
were  to  come  together.  From  his  consenting  to  a  place  of 
meeting  so  far  from  Rome  and  in  which  French  influence  must 
be  predominant,  from  his  stipulation  as  to  the  armed  galleys 
which  he  knew  that  his  uncle  could  not  afford,  it  looks  as  if 
Antonio  desired  to  accumulate  difficulties  for  the  future,  rather 
than  to  ensure  a  meeting  of  the  two  Popes,  at  which  his  uncle 
might  execute  the  wish  which  he  had  so  often  and  so  emphati- 
cally repeated. 

The  treaty  of  Marseilles  was  a  diplomatic  triumph  for  Pope 
Benedict.  Savona,  the  little  port  on  the  Letimbro,  halfway 
between  San  Remo  and  Genoa,  had  been  fixed  upon  for  their 
meeting.  Now  at  length  the  '  way  of  convention,'  so  long 
battled  for  by  Benedict,  seemed  open  to  him.  Innocent  the 
Seventh  had  openly  doubted  whether  a  legitimate  Pope  could 
be  required  to  resign,-  and  had  been  smitten  by  God  with  a 
first  stroke  of  apoplexy  soon  after ;  but  his  successor  was 
apparently  a  man  of  different  mind,  for,  as  soon  as  his  nephew 
returned  Gregory  accepted  the  place  and  the  date  proposed. 
There  was  still  time  for  reflection,  for  the  treaty  was  not  to  be 
ratified  until  the  end  of  July.  Had  the  two  Popes  and  their 
cardinals  met  and  conferred  together,  had  no  violent  coup  de 
^  Valois,  iii.  504;  Sybel,  xvii.  116.  ^  De  Schismate,  195. 


254     m  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

main  been  attempted  on  either  side,  there  would  undoubtedly 
have  been  much  intrigue  and  diplomacy ;  many  high  promises 
would  have  been  made  on  both  sides,  but  the  final  result  can 
hardly  be  doubtful :  the  determined  and  eloquent  little 
Spaniard  would  have  emerged  from  the  conference  as  the 
recognised  single  Pope  of  Christendom,  and  the  weak  and 
vacillating  Venetian  would  have  taken  his  place  as  the  senior 
cardinal  in  the  united  College  of  Cardinals. 

The  '  way  of  convention '  was,  however,  not  yet  fully  open  to 
Pope  Benedict.  Of  the  five  methods  for  ending  the  Great  Schism, 
the  '  way  of  fact,''  of  which  alone  Pope  Clement  would  hear,  had 
been  discarded  as  impolitic  and  dangerous  ;  the  '  way  of  com- 
promise,' by  the  appointment  of  an  equal  number  of  arbitrators 
on  each  side,  had  never  entered  into  serious  consideration  ;  the 
'  way  of  cession  "*  was  alone  approved  by  the  French  court  and 
by  the  extreme  party  in  the  University  of  Paris ;  failing  that, 
the  '  way  of  a  council '  had  the  approval  of  the  more  moderate 
party  in  the  University ;  but  the  '  way  of  convention '  was  to 
all  of  them  anathema,  and  was  regarded  as  a  mere  subterfuge 
of  the  wily  Pope  Benedict.  When  he  sent  to  the  French 
court  and  to  the  clergy  and  the  University  copies  of  his 
letter  to  Pope  Gregory,  the  allusion  to  the  '  way  of  conven- 
tion '  was  at  once  seized  upon  and  condemned ;  the  King  was 
persuaded  to  sign  the  two  ordonnances  for  the  subtraction  of 
obedience,  although,  thanks  to  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  their 
transmission  to  the  Pope  was  delayed  for  the  present ;  and  an 
embassy  of  thirty-six  members,  comprising  the  extreme  and  the 
moderate  shades  of  opinion,  was  despatched  to  urge  him  once 
more  to  abdicate.  The  embassy  was  to  visit  both  Popes,  and 
to  urge  them  to  abdicate  without  meeting ;  if  they  insisted  on 
a  conference,  the  embassy  was  to  facilitate  their  wishes,  and  to 
propose  certain  towns,  Genoa,  Pisa,  Lucca,  Siena,  or  Florence, 
as  the  place  for  meeting. 

The  embassy  reached  Villeneuve  on  the  30th  April ; 
Gregory''s  three  ambassadors  had  reached  Marseilles  on  the 
31st  March,  and  Savona  had  already  been  agreed  upon  as  the 
place  of  meeting.  Pope  Benedict  knew  Savona,  Pope  Gregory 
did  not ;  and  to  one  who  knows  the  place,  the  suggestion  that 
it  should  be  used  for  a  conference  between  two  rival  potentates 


THE  WAY  OF  CONVENTION        255 

seems  little  better  than  a  trap.  The  port  is  commanded  by  a 
huge  mass  of  rock  which  was  converted  by  the  Genoese,  a 
century  and  a  half  later,  into  a  strong  fortress  ;  this  fort  and 
the  more  important  part  of  the  town  are  situated  on  the 
eastern  side  of  the  river.  The  Letimbro  itself,  though  in  the 
rains  it  swells  into  a  mighty  torrent,  broad  and  deep,  is  for 
the  most  part  of  the  year  a  tinv  stream,  trickling  now  on  one 
side  and  now  on  the  other  of  its  stony  bed ;  pickets  might 
have  been  posted  here  and  there,  but  it  would  be  impossible 
to  defend  the  banks  against  a  night  attack  or  a  sudden 
surprise :  in  fact,  the  Pope  who  held  the  western  part  of  the 
town  would  seem  to  be  completely  at  the  mercy  of  his  rival 
on  the  eastern  bank.  But  at  that  time  there  were  two  for- 
tresses in  the  town  :  it  was  proposed  that  each  Pope  should 
hold  one,  and  that  the  place  should  be  divided  into  two  equal 
zones ;  that  each  Pope  should  bring  the  same  number  of 
galleys,  the  same  number  of  armed  men,  and  the  same  number 
of  retainers  ;  that  Savona  should  be  under  their  joint  command, 
and  that  all  the  roads  and  approaches  to  the  town  should  be 
strictly  guarded.  Finally,  Benedict  allowed  Gregory  to  take 
whichever  zone  he  pleased.^  It  is  small  wonder  then  that 
Gregory  at  first  professed  himself  content  with  the  arrange- 
ment which  had  been  made.  His  nephew  had  even  gone  so 
far  as  to  welcome  the  offer  of  Genoese  galleys  to  bring  Pope 
Gregory  to  Savona. 

All  this  made  the  work  of  the  French  embassy  so  much  the 
simpler.  When  they  arrived  at  Villeneuve  on  the  30th  April, 
they  learned  the  contents  of  the  treaty  made  nine  days  earlier 
between  the  two  Popes.  At  Aix  a  few  days  later  they  met 
the  Cardinal  de  Thury  and  the  ambassadors  from  Pope 
Gregory.  The  Patriarch  of  Alexandria,  Simon  de  Cramaud, 
and  others  in  his  train  were  in  doubt  as  to  the  reception  they 
would  meet  from  tiie  Pope  whom  they  had  so  often  and  so 
consistently  traduced,  but  the  Cardinal  reassured  them.  Bene- 
dict, he  said,  was  perfectly  ready  to  abdicate.  Antonio 
Corrario  gave  them  the  same  assurance  on  behalf  of  his  uncle. 
Gregory  had  said  to  him,  '  Do  you  think,  my  dear  nephew, 
that  it  is  the  obligation  of  my  oath  that  obliges  me  to  work 
^  Valois,  iii,  506,  note. 


256     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

for  peace  ?  It  is  rather  through  Christian  love  that  I  am  ready 
to  abdicate;  the  desire  for  peace  grows  on  me  day  by  day. 
When  shall  I  see  that  happy  moment  when  I  shall  render  peace 
to  the  Church  ? '  De  Thury  and  Antonio  alike  recommended 
them  to  adhere  rather  to  the  spirit  than  to  the  letter  of  their 
instructions,  and  to  deal  with  Benedict  sweetly  and  temper- 
ately, seeing  that  he  was  a  proud  man  whom  it  was  not  wise 
to  irritate  or  exasperate.^  It  was  agreed  that  Antonio  should 
return  at  once  to  Rome  to  carry  the  news  of  the  treaty  to  his 
uncle. 

The    ambassadors    reached    Marseilles    on    the    9th    May. 
Benedict  sent  his  chamberlain  and  a  large  escort  to  meet  them 
outside  the   city  and    to   conduct  them  to   the   comfortable 
lodgings  which  he  had  provided.     On  the  evening  of  that  day, 
in  the  Abbey  of  Saint  Victor,  the  Pope  met  and  greeted  them. 
It  was  a  strange  and  memorable  meeting.     At  the  head  of  the 
ambassadors  stood  Simon  de  Cramaud,  the  most  determined 
foe  of  the  Pope,  whose  tiara  he  coveted.     He  was  supported 
by  the  implacable  Norman  churchmen,  who  had  all  along  been 
distinguished  by  their  fierce  opposition  to  their  spiritual  lord. 
There  was  Gilles  des  Champs,  who  at  the  embassy  of  the  royal 
dukes  had  opened  the  proceedings  by  demanding  the  abdica- 
tion of  Pope  Benedict.     There  was  Pierre  Plaoul,  who,  in  the 
council    of   1396,    had    pleaded    long   and    earnestly    for   the 
subtraction  of  obedience.     There  was  Jean  Petit,  who,  as  hot 
and  as  eager  as  any  of  the  others,  was  about  to  earn  for  himself 
undying  infamy  as   the  apologist  of  political    assassination. 
There  were  others  of  milder  mood;  but  the  Pope  met  and 
greeted  them  all  alike.     He  addressed  each  by  name,  inquir- 
ing after  his  health  and  welfare.     His  kindly  grace  won  all 
hearts.     Those  who  had  overwhelmed  him  with  insults  threw 
themselves  before  him,  and  kissed  his  feet,  his  hands,  his  face. 
The  Pope,  '  small  in  stature,  in  figure  graceful,  in  countenance 
dignified,'  exercised  a  magnetic  attraction  which  not  even  his 
enemies  could  withstand. 

Next  day  the  public  audience  was  held  in  the  Abbey,  and 
the  Patriarch  of  Alexandria  in  the  name  of  the  embassy  asked 
for  fresh  assurances  from  Pope  Benedict.     The  Pope  replied 

*  Religieux^  iii.  582. 


THE  WAY  OF  CONVENTION        257 

at  once.  He  reminded  them  of  the  voyage  which  he  had  already 
at  his  great  age  undertaken  to  Genoa  in  the  interest  of  the 
Church  ;  he  assured  them  that  he  had  from  the  first  been 
ready  to  abdicate,  and  explained  that  it  would  have  been  in 
vain  for  him  to  announce  this  intention  unless  and  until  he 
was  certain  that  his  rival  was  of  like  mind  with  himself,  but 
that  now  that  God  had  given  him  a  man  after  his  own  heart 
to  deal  with,  he  was  old  and  near  the  grave  and  had  no  other 
desire  than  to  carry  out  the  design  which  he  had  already 
notified  to  the  King  of  France  and  to  the  Christian  princes.^ 
The  ambassadors  thanked  him  for  his  reply,  and  the  further 
audience  was  adjourned  till  next  day. 

Unfortunately  the  ambassadors  were  not  satisfied  with  tlie 
verbal  promise  of  the  Pope;  they  wanted  it  reduced  to  a 
formal  Bull.  This  demand  was  set  forth  by  the  Archbishop 
of  Tours  on  the  11th  May,  Benedict  again  took  up  his 
parable.  The  four  things  necessary  to  secure  the  end  for 
which  they  were  working,  he  told  them,  were  confidence,  con- 
cord, freedom  of  action,  and  speed.  Why  should  they  not 
trust  their  sovereign  pontiff?  If  they  trusted  him,  there  was  no 
need  of  a  writing;  if  they  did  not  trust  him,  it  was  useless  to 
argue  further.  He  had  from  the  beginning  proposed  the 
'  way  of  convention,'  and  if  he  had  been  listened  to,  the  union 
of  the  Church  would  have  been  effected  thirteen  years  ago.  He 
had  offered  to  abdicate  more  clearly  and  frankly  than  his  rival, 
but  the  most  precise  declarations  were  wrongly  construed  when 
once  confidence  was  lost.  He  and  his  rival  had  now  agreed  on 
a  place  of  meeting,  and  the  Cardinal  of  Thury  would  assure 
them  that  it  was  not  his  fault  that  the  meeting  was  not 
to  take  place  earlier.  Again  the  archbishop  repeated  his 
request,  and  again  the  Pope  refused;  he  promised  to  send 
messengers  to  the  ambassadors  to  reassure  them  on  every 
point.  Then  the  Pope  spoke  privately  with  Simon  de  Cramaud 
and  others,  refuting  with  touching  simplicity  the  accusations 
which  had  been  made  against  him  at  Paris ;  he  protested  that 
no  taint  of  heresy  had  ever  soiled  his  Christian  faith.  His 
reproaches  were  so  full  of  kindly  moderation  that  even  his 
hardened  antagonist  could  not  contain  himself :  he  burst  into 
*  Rdigieux,  iii.  588. 


258     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

tears,  threw  himself  at  Benedict's  feet,  and  craved  his  forgive- 
ness : — '  If  I  have  against  my  soul's  salvation  calumniated  my 
Father,  I  entreat  him  to  have  pity  on  me.'^  The  other 
doctors  followed  the  example  of  their  leader.  The  Pope 
pardoned  them,  and  invited  them  to  dine  with  him  on  the 
15th.  Simon  de  Cramaud,  ashamed  of  his  temporary  weakness, 
and  suspicious  that  he  had  been  outwitted  by  the  aged  pontiff, 
sent  an  excuse,  but  the  others  accepted. 

The  ambassadors  were  in  a  quandary.  The  Pope  gave  them 
fair  words,  and  promised  everything  they  wanted,  but  he  gave 
them  nothing  beyond  words.  They  had  been  instructed  to 
get  from  him  a  Bull,  signifying  his  intention  to  abdicate;  and 
they  had  been  commissioned,  if  such  Bull  were  not  forthcoming, 
to  publish  the  ordonnance  of  the  renewed  subtraction  of 
obedience.  Since  they  had  been  so  commissioned,  however,  the 
rival  Popes  had  arranged  a  meeting  at  Savona ;  hence  it  was 
clear  that  the  publication  might  endanger  that  meeting  and 
could  do  no  good.  Still  they  wanted  tiie  Bull ;  they  wanted 
to  tie  the  hands  of  the  Pope,  and  to  bind  him  down  to  the 
'  way  of  cession,'  whereas  it  was  clear  from  his  talk  about 
liberty  of  action  that  he  had  not  given  up  all  thought  of  the 
'  way  of  convention.'  The  extremists  of  the  University  of 
Paris  knew  not  the  way  to  deal  with  Pope  Benedict :  it  was 
a  great  mistake  for  them  to  show  such  want  of  trust  and  of 
respect  for  him  whom  they  professed  to  hold  as  the  only 
rightful  Pope.  They  had  an  interview  with  the  cardinals,  and 
consulted  them,  among  other  things,  as  to  what  was  to  be 
done  supposing  Benedict  were  to  die.  This,  was  a  question 
complicated  by  the  consideration  that  the  rival  cardinals  did 
not  acknowledge  the  college  under  Benedict.  They  also  met 
two  envoys  from  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  whom  they  naturally 
distrusted,  but  who  explained  that  they  also  had  endeavoured 
to  persuade  Benedict  to  comply  with  the  request  for  a  Bull. 
Finally  it  was  agreed  that  a  last  attempt  should  be  made 
by  the  moderate  men  of  the  embassy  to  win  the  Pope's 
compliance. 

On  the  evening  of  the  17th  May,  Pierre  d'Ailly,  Jean  Gerson, 
and  the  Abbe  of  Saint  Denys  had  a  special  audience  of  the 

^  Keligieux,  iii.  602, 


THE  WAY  OF  CONV^ENTION        259 

Pope  and  the  cardinals.  The  Bishop  of  Cambrai  entreated  the 
Pope  to  grant  the  Bulls  desired :  by  doing  so,  he  would  gain 
the  favour  of  France,  while  his  refusal  might  cause  him  to  be 
regarded  as  schismatic  and  might  endanger  the  success  of  the 
negotiations  with  his  rival.  In  reply  the  Pope  expressed  his 
astonishment  at  the  treatment  which  he  had  received  from  the 
kingdom  and  the  clergy  of  France ;  it  was  contrary  to  the 
canon  law  for  such  Bulls  to  be  demanded  or  given ;  it  was 
sufficient  that  he  had  declared  his  intention  clearly  in  public 
consistory ;  it  was  idle  to  threaten  him  as  a  schismatic  for 
prolonging  the  Schism,  for  he  had  done  his  best  to  hasten  its 
termination.  Then  he  explained  to  these  men  whom  he  could 
trust  that  giving  a  Bull  would  have  the  reverse  effect  from 
that  which  was  desired,  for  it  would  look  as  if  he  in  his  subse- 
quent action  acted  under  compulsion,  and  would  thus  invalidate 
his  abdication  ;  it  would  be  impossible  for  him  to  treat  with 
his  rival  if  his  hands  were  thus  tied.  He  therefore  adhered  to 
his  refusal.^ 

The  ambassadors  prepai'ed  to  depart ;  they  had  their  final 
audience.  The  Pope  reiterated  his  readiness  to  abdicate; 
he  would  prefer  the  '  way  of  cession,'  he  said,  to  any  other 
way  of  ending  the  Schism,  but  at  the  same  time  he  refused 
to  exclude  other  ways  absolutely  from  consideration.  The 
Patriarch  acknowledged  regret  at  not  obtaining  the  Bulls 
which  the  ambassadors  had  looked  for.  The  Pope  answered 
that  every  good  Christian  ought  to  be  satisfied ;  that  he 
doubted  not  the  King  of  France  would  be  satisfied  ;  and  that 
whoever  was  not  satisfied  with  what  he  had  declared  as  to  his 
intention,  was  not  desirous  of  the  unity  of  the  Church.  The 
ambassadors  took  their  leave. 

They  went  to  Aix  ;  and  on  the  21st  they  celebrated  the  Mass 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  had  a  long  discussion  as  to  whether 
they  should  publish  the  ordonnance  of  the  subtraction  of 
obedience.  They  decided  not  to  do  so.  They  then  split  up 
into  three  bodies.  Two  of  their  number  were  left  in  Marseilles 
to  confirm  the  Pope  in  his  good  resolution  and  to  provide 
against  a  vacancy  bv  death.  The  majority  went  on  to  Pope 
Gregory  at  Rome.  Three  of  their  number  were  sent  to  Paris 
'  Religieux,  iii.  6i6. 


260     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

to  report  progress.  The  King  and  the  court  were  perfectly 
well  satisfied  with  the  result  of  the  embassy.  The  University 
of  Paris  was  wi-oth  because  the  ambassadors  had  not  published 
the  subtraction  of  obedience.  Pope  Benedict,  cut  to  the  quick 
by  the  distrust  evinced  by  the  embassy  and  knowing  what  was 
in  store  for  him,^  determined  to  be  beforehand  with  the  enemies 
of  his  own  household,  and  prepared  a  Bull  of  excommunication, 
directed  against  all  who  should  subtract  obedience,  directed  in 
other  words  against  all  his  opponents  in  France.  It  was  not 
to  be  promulgated  at  once ;  it  was  to  be  held  in  reserve.  If 
the  obedience  of  France  were  again  subtracted,  if  the  King  of 
France  used  against  him  the  most  formidable  weapon  in  his 
power,  he  would  use  against  the  King  of  France  the  most 
formidable  weapon  in  the  papal  armoury.  Charles  held  in 
readiness  his  ordonnance  of  subtraction ;  the  Pope  held  in 
readiness  his  Bull  of  excommunication. 

Notwithstanding  his  early  profession  of  earnestness  to  secure 
the  peace  and  unity  of  the  Church,  Pope  Gregory  remained  for 
the  first  eight  months  of  his  reign  in  Rome,  and  took  no  steps 
for  meeting  Pope  Benedict.  His  sweet  simplicity  gave  way  to 
a  senile  weakness.  In  the  earliest  days  of  his  pontificate 
Leonardo  of  Arezzo  had  foreseen  the  possibility  of  his  tergiver- 
sation, and  Gregory  himself  in  his  first  encyclical  had  remarked 
that  obligations  were  of  no  force  against  the  maker  of  laws.^ 
In  May  envoys  came  from  Genoa  and  Savona  to  congratulate 
him,  to  offer  him  security,  to  promise  him  and  his  cardinals 
any  ships  they  might  require.  But  Gregory  was  surrounded 
by  nephews  and  relations  who  had  no  desire  to  renounce  the 
golden  harvest  which  they  saw  before  them.  His  nephew 
Antonio  had  in  February  been  made  papal  treasurer  and 
referendary — a  bad  sign  for  the  union,  said  the  ofilcials  of  the 
Curia.2  Another  nephew,  Gabriel  Gondulmaro,  had  been  taken 
into  the  Curia ;  his  lay  nephews,  the  sons  of  his  brother  Filippo, 
were  entertained  at  the  papal  court  and  wasted  the  papal 
treasure  in  their  horses,  servants,  and  riotous  living.'*  His 
cardinals  urged  him  to  fulfil  the  terms  of  the  Treaty  of 
Marseilles,  but  Gregory  referred  the  question  of  his  obligation 

1  Ehrle,  vii.  599.  -  Sybel,  xvii.  109. 

'  De  Schisniate,  228-9.  *  Mur.  iii.  838. 


THE  WAY  OF  CONVENTION        201 

to  a  commission  of  twenty-four  officials  of  his  Curia,  with  his 
vice-chancellor,  the  Cardinal  Bishop  of  Ostia,  at  their  head  ; 
and  he  was  deeply  chagrined  when  they  backed  up  the  recom- 
mendations of  the  cardinals  and  urged  the  Pope  to  fulfil  his 
obligation  and  his  oath.^ 

The  French  ambassadors,  with  a  fair  wind  behind  them,  had 
reached  Genoa  in  June,  and  there  they  made  arrangements  for 
five  galleys  to  be  sent  for  the  use  of  Gregory.  They  had  sent 
on  Robert  the  Hermit  to  announce  their  coming  in  the  Italian 
towns ;  and  as  they  passed  through  Lncca  and  Florence  they 
were  received  with  pomp  and  hospitality.  They  continued 
their  way  through  Siena  and  Viterbo,  where  they  met  two 
cardinals,  who  informed  them  of  the  machinations  of  King 
Ladislas;  and  they  reached  Rome  on  the  5th  July.^  They 
found  Pope  Gregory  still  in  Rome ;  he  had  been  obliged  to 
Hee  for  refuge  from  an  attack  of  the  Colonnas  to  the  Castle 
of  Sant  Angelo.  They  had  an  interview  with  the  Pope  on 
the  6th,  and  they  met  the  ambassadors  from  Pope  Benedict. 
Gregory  had  fallen  oft'  from  his  first  good  intentions ;  there 
were  points  in  the  Treaty  of  Marseilles  which  he  did  not  like ; 
there  were  all  sorts  of  difficulties  in  the  way  of  the  voyage  to 
Savona;  he  could  not  trust  the  Genoese  galleys,  and  the 
Venetians  could  not  send  him  any  ;  he  was  afraid  of  what 
Ladislas  might  do ;  and  above  all,  he  iiad  not  any  money. 

Pope  Innocent  the  Seventh,  when  he  died,  had  ah'eady  lost 
liis  general  Mustarda,  who  had  been  treacherously  killed  by 
Paolo  Orsini;^  but  he  had  left  two  other  generals,  the 
condottiere  Paolo  Orsini  himself,  and  his  own  nephew  Ludovico 
de'  Megliorati,  who  had  been  guilty  of  the  dastardly  massacre 
of  the  eleven  Roman  citizens.  Gregory  desired  to  retain  them 
both.  It  was,  however,  one  thing  to  take  these  generals  into 
his  service,  and  quite  another  to  retain  them  in  it.  The  late 
Pope's  nephew  had  no  mind  to  serve  his  uncle's  successor ;  he 
feared  the  revenge  of  the  Romans ;  and  when  the  Pope  pro- 
posed to  deprive  him  of  the  government  of  the  March  of 
Ancona  for  the  benefit  of  one  of  his  own  nephews,*  Ludovico 
promptly   revolted,   seized  on   Ascoli,  and   deserted    to  King 

'  Erler,  i6o.  -  Religifux,  iii.  644. 

^  De  Schismate,  196.  *  Ibid.  231. 


262     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

Ladislas  of  Naples.      To  Paolo  Orsini  Gregory  already  owed 
six  thousand  golden  gulden  which  he  had  borrowed   for  his 
coronation ;  and  by  March  1407  the  condottiere  general's  bill 
for  the  pay  of  his  troops  amounted  to  sixty  thousand  more. 
Paolo  Orsini  marched  off  in  anger  toward  Corneto,  seized  the 
city  of  Toscanella  as    security    for  his  debt,  plundered,  im- 
prisoned, and  slew  many  of  the  citizens.     Gregory  endeavoured 
to  provide  his  nephews   with   lucrative   posts,  but  could   do 
nothing  to  protect  his  subjects.     To  appease  Orsini  he  pawned 
a  costly  golden  mitre,  which  had  been  presented  to  Pope  Urban 
the    Sixth ;    he   allowed    his    nephew    Gondulmaro   to    sell   a 
number  of  books,   belonging   to   the    Pope  and   the   Roman 
Church,  to  Cardinal  Minultulus.     The  costs  of  the  embassy  to 
Marseilles  were  defrayed  by  one  of  the  ambassadors,  the  Bishop 
of  Todi.    The  papal  revenues  from  distant  lands  were  gathered 
as  speedily  as  possible,  the  papal  collector  being  ordered  on  the 
12th  March  to  send  in  money  to  Rome.    With  the  States  of  the 
Church  under  Papal  Legates  who  were  virtually  independent, 
Gregory  was  at   his  wits'  end  to  find  ready  cash  to  pay  his 
troops  and  to  defray  the  extravagant  expenses  of  his  nephews.^ 
The  French   ambassadors  recognised  his  need,  and   offered 
him  funds  sufficient  to  defend  Rome  for  three  months,  if  he 
would  only  start  at  once  to  meet  Pope  Benedict.      But  the 
Venetians    would    not  send    Gregory  galleys  for    Savona,  for 
Savona  was  under  the  rule  of  Boucicaut,  and  the  Marshal  was 
full  of  threatenings  and  vengeance  against  the  Venetians.     As 
he  had  been  returning  to  Genoa  from  the  Levant,  the  Venetian 
fleet,  under  Carlo  Zeno,  had  fallen  in  with  and  had  disastrously 
defeated  his  fleet  off  Zonchio  on  the  7th  October  1403  :  ^  and 
this  was  an  indignity  which  the  Marshal,^  '  a  brave  but  bluff 
and  headstrong  soldier,'  was  not  likely  to  forgive  or   forget. 
It  was  therefore  useless  for  Pope  Gregory  to  ask  the  Venetians 
to  their  enemy's  strong  harbour,  and  he  might  have  expected 
a  refusal  when  he  made  the  request.     Moreover,  he,  himself  a 
Venetian,  distrusted  his  hereditary  enemies,  the  Genoese;  he 
could  not  overcome  this  distrust,  although  his  nephew  Antonio 
had  returned  to  Rome  in  a  Genoese  galley,  and  although  the 
commandant  of  the  Genoese  ships  was  a  man  of  his  own  choice, 
1  Sybel,  xvii.  98-9.  '■*  Boucicaut,  264.  *  Hazlitt,  i.  743. 


THE  WAY  OF  CONVENTION        263 

who  was  ready  to  give  his  wife  and  children  as  hostages  for  his 
fidelity.      Nothing   could    overcome  the    Pope's   unreasonable 
scruples.      Gregory  averred  that   he  dare   not   trust  Marshal 
Boucicaut ;    he  wanted  him  removed  from  Genoa.      It  was  in 
vain  that  the  Constable  renewed  his  oath  to  abide  by  the 
treaty,  in  vain  that  he  offered  to  make  over  to  Gregory  and 
his  cardinals  his  own  castles  as  additional  security.     Still  the 
Pope  hesitated.      Ladislas   ingratiated  himself,  pandering  to 
the  old  man's  delight  in   the  table,  by  sending  the   Pope  a 
costly  dinner-service.^      To  the  French  ambassadors  Gregory 
poured  out  a  particular  string  of  complaints :    he  could  not 
trust  their  princes  ;  the  word  of  one  was  no  guarantee  for  any 
of  the  others ;    moreover,    if  they   threatened   subtraction    of 
obedience  from  a  Pope  whom  they  acknowledged,  what  would 
they  not  do  to  a  Pope  whom  they  held  to  be  a  usurper  ?     The 
ambassadors  offered  themselves  to  become  hostages;   but  the 
want  of  French  confidence  in  Benedict  was  bringing  forth  the 
result  which  he  had  foretold.     A  hundred  citizens  fi'om  Genoa, 
fifty  from  Savona,  were  offered  to  Gregory  as  hostages  for  his 
safety :  it  was  of  no  avail.     Furthermore,  he  urged  that  King 
Ladislas  of  Naples  was  pillaging  his  territory  and  would  ruin 
it  utterlv  if  he  left  Rome,  though  there  were  some  who  believed 
that  Gregory  himself  was  privy  to  the  King's  misdeed s.- 

Through  the  whole  month  of  July  these  wearisome 
audiences  of  the  two  sets  of  ambassadors  with  Pope  Gregory 
continued,  but  all  were  fruitless.  On  one  day  Gregory  pro- 
posed that  he  and  his  rival  should  both  go  by  land  to  Savona, 
and  that  there  should  be  no  armed  galleys ;  then  he  reflected 
that  one  land  route  for  him  was  closed  by  war,  and  that  the 
other  was  unsafe.  Then  he  wanted  a  fresh  treaty,  seeing  that 
his  nephew  should  not  have  bound  him  to  the  impossible ;  but 
the  ambassadors  had  no  power  to  do  otherwise  than  to  execute 
the  present  treaty.  He  was  suspected  of  collusion  with  Simon 
de  Cramaud,^  whom  he  afterwards  accused  of  an'ogance.  He 
offered  to  go  to  Pietra  Sancta,  five  miles  beyond  Lucca :  he 
was  told  that  if  he  meant  to  go,  he  had  better  start  at  once. 
The  old  man  burst  into  a  torrent  of  tears.  A  day  or  two  later 
he  had  again  changed  his  mind :  he  now  proposed  Pisa, 
'  De  Schismate,  230.  -  Ibid.  236.  "  Ehrle,  vii.  603. 


264     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

Florence,  or  Siena  for  the  interview ;  he  would  agree  to  any 
town  in  the  dominion  of  Florence.  On  the  28th  July  he  sent 
for  Pierre  d'Ailly,  Jean  Gerson,  and  four  others,  and  told  them 
that  he  trusted  them  and  was  going  to  open  his  heart  to  them. 
Savona,  he  said,  was  so  difficult  as  to  be  impossible,  but  he 
would  go  to  Pietra  Sancta,  or  to  any  other  place  in  his 
obedience  still  nearer  to  that  of  Benedict  if  there  was  one. 
The  Bishop  of  Cambrai  reminded  him  of  the  confident  hopes 
which  his  early  professions  had  raised,  urged  him  still  to  trust 
in  the  King  of  France  as  he  had  once  done,  and  assured  him 
that  it  was  vain  to  talk  of  any  new  treaty.  Gregory  answered 
that  his  confidence  in  the  French  King  had  been  shaken  by  his 
treatment  of  Benedict,  and  he  objected,  as  Benedict  had  done, 
to  their  being  bound  down  to  the  '  way  of  cession '  to  the 
exclusion  of  all  others.  When  the  bishop  had  answered  this 
plea,  Gregory  objected  that  there  were  so  many  royal  princes 
in  France,  and  that  the  word  of  one  did  not  bind  another.  He 
then  harped  on  the  old  question  of  the  galleys ;  he  concluded 
by  declaring  that  he  would  go  to  Pietra  Sancta  and  would 
treat  with  Benedict  from  there.  He  burst  into  tears  as  he 
said,  '  Yes,  I  will  give  you  union,  do  not  doubt  it ;  I  will  so 
work  that  I  shall  obtain  the  love  of  the  King  of  France  and  of 
all  his  kingdom  ;  only  I  beg  of  you  not  to  leave  me ;  let  some 
of  you  stay  with  me  to  accompany  and  console  me  on  the  road.' 
Truly  a  very  pitiful,  weak  old  man  !  On  the  31st  July  Gregory 
gave  the  ambassadors  a  reply  in  writing  setting  forth  the 
reasons  why  he  could  not  consent  to  Savona  as  the  place  of 
meeting.  The  ambassadors,  tired  out  with  his  tergiversations, 
left  Rome  and  went  on  their  way. 

The  final  and  formal  reply  of  Pope  Gregory,  which  was 
addressed  to  both  sets  of  ambassadors,  was  to  the  following 
effect : — He  objected  to  Savona  as  the  place  of  meeting  because 
it  was  eminently  unsafe  (valde  suspectus),  because  he  could  not 
get  galleys  to  go  there,  because  of  the  war  between  Facino 
Cane  and  Genoa,  and  because  of  the  likelihood  of  plague.  He 
suggested  that  Benedict  should  accept  some  place  in  the 
Roman  obedience.  If,  however,  his  rival  insisted  on  Savona 
as  the  place  of  meeting,  then  Gregory  would  be  there  by 
the  appointed  time  if  the  King  of  France  would  provide  him 


THE  WAY  OF  CONVENTION        265 

with  the  necessary  galleys,  but  in  that  case  the  treaty  must 
be  modified  in  the  following  particulars : — Benedict  must 
arrive  first  at  Savona  and  must  disarm  all  his  galleys;  Boucicaut 
must  be  recalled  to  France  or  to  some  place  whicli  Gregory 
approved,  and  must  not  interfere  by  land  or  by  sea  with  those 
at  Savona ;  a  fresh  go^  ernor  of  Genoa  must  be  chosen  by 
Gregory  from  among  the  ambassadors  of  the  King  of  France ; 
a  hundred  citizens  of  Genoa  and  fifty  of  Savona  must  be  given 
as  hostages ;  and  finally,  Gregory  stipulated  that  if  he  decided 
to  go  by  land  and  found  it  impossible  to  reach  Savona,  or  was 
unwilling  to  go  there  (vel  nollet  accedere),  he  would  send  a 
fully  empowered  proctor  to  Savona  within  the  appointed  time 
to  act  for  him.  It  was  quite  clear  that  Pope  Gregory  did  not 
intend  to  abide  by  the  terms  of  the  Treaty  of  ]\larseilles.^ 

On  their  way  back  the  ambassadors  heard  that  two  \'enetians 
had  written  to  Pope  Gregory  warning  him  not  to  trust  himself 
in  Savona  nor  in  the  hands  of  Boucicaut,  the  Governor  of 
Genoa,  for  he  would  cei-tainly  be  made  prisoner.  From  Genoa 
the  ambassadors  wrote  a  long  epistle  to  the  Pope  urging  him  to 
reconsider  his  decision  and  to  fulfil  the  treaty.  Pope  Benedict 
had  heard  of  his  rival's  hesitancy,  and  on  the  1st  August 
wrote  to  him  from  Nice  expressing  his  astonishment.  Thence 
on  the  Tth  August  Benedict  went  to  the  monastery  of  Saint 
Honorat  on  the  Isle  of  Lerins  to  escape  the  plague  which  was 
rasing;  romid  Marseilles  ;  and  here  on  the  22nd  his  ambassadors, 
accompanied  by  a  bishop  from  the  Pope  at  Rome,  found  him. 
They  told  him  all  that  had  happened,  and  Gregory's  ambassador 
delivered  his  master's  missive.  Benedict  expressed  his  great 
sorrow  at  the  change  in  Gregory's  sentiments,  expressed  his 
belief  that  he  w^ould  nevertheless  not  fail  to  be  at  Savona  on 
the  1st  November,  and  intimated  that  he  himself  was  going  to 
Nice  to  make  his  preparations  for  the  voyage.  He  wrote  to 
his  rival,  urging  him  to  abide  by  the  treaty,  reminding  him 
that  they  were  aged  men  with  no  time  to  lose.  Gregory  had 
communicated  with  the  King  of  France,  setting  forth  his 
objections  to  Savona;  and  Charles  had  sent  an  autograph 
letter  to  Benedict,  full  of  kindly  protestation,  adAising  him 
to  go  to  Pisa  rather  than  risk  the  loss  of  their  common  object. 
'  Martene,  ii.  1368-1375. 


266     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

This  would  have  entailed  the  renewal  of  wearisome  negotia- 
tions, and  would  have  been  fruitless,  as  the  event  proved. 
Seeing  that  Gregory  had  distinctly  promised  to  send  fully 
empowered  proctors  if  he  himself  did  not  come  to  Savona, 
Benedict  certainly  adopted  the  wisest  and  most  politic  course 
when  he  resolved  punctiliously  to  observe  every  article  of  the 
Treaty  of  Marseilles.  This  he  determined  to  do,  and  this  he 
did.^  He  reached  Savona  on  the  23rd  September,  and  re- 
mained there  until  the  1st  November  was  passed,  awaiting  the 
ai'rival  of  Pope  Gregory.  But  there  was  to  be  no  meeting  of 
the  rival  Popes  at  Savona. 

Ludovico  de'  Megliorati,  the  nephew  of  the  late  Pope 
Innocent,  and  the  Cardinal  of  Aquileia,  meanwhile  had  plotted 
with  Giovanni  and  Nicolo  Colonna  to  betray  Rome  to 
Ludovico's  new  master,  the  King  of  Naples,  who  was  eager 
to  seize  the  city  and  the  Pope  in  order  to  prevent  Gregory 
from  going  to  Savona.  There  were  those  who  thought  that 
the  Pope  himself  was  in  the  plot,  for  he  moved  off  to  the 
Castle  of  Sant  Angelo  with  surprising  celerity.^  The  meeting 
of  the  Popes,  thought  Ladislas,  could  only  eventuate  in  the 
election  of  a  single  French  Pope,  devoted  to  the  interest  of 
France  and  to  that  of  the  Duke  of  Anjou  ;  it  would  therefore 
be  fatal  to  his  own  rule  in  Naples.  On  the  night  of  the  17th 
June,  while  the  ambassadors  from  Pope  Benedict  and  from  the 
King  of  France  were  still  in  the  city,  the  Colonnas  entered 
Rome  through  a  breach  made  in  the  wall  with  four  hundred 
horse  and  as  many  foot,  trusting  that  the  citizens  would  rise 
and  support  them.  They  were  disappointed.  Paolo  Orsini 
was  still  close  to  the  city,  and  hearing  tlie  outcry,  he  rose  and 
went  at  once  against  the  enemy,  assailing  them  with  stones  and 
arrows,  so  that  there  was  a  great  slaughter  outside  the  Gate  of 
Saint  Lawrence.  He  captured  the  two  Colonna  leaders  and 
fourteen  others,  whom  he  held  to  ransom,  retiring  with  them 
subsequently  to  his  own  castles.  Ladislas's  '  knight  of  freedom,' 
Galeotto  de  Normannis,  Orsini's  own  brother-in-law,  Ricardo 
de  Sanguineis,  and  others  lost  their  heads  for  that  nighfs 
venture.^     The  citizens  of  Rome,  turbulent  and  fickle  as  they 

^  Ehrle,  vii.  6i2.  "  De  Sckismate,  233. 

^  Tartini,  ii.  569-70  ;   Mur.  xviii.  594  ;  xxiv.  982  ;   De  Schisnia/e,  233  et  seq. 


THE  WAY  OF  CONVENTION        20^ 

niiglit  be,  were  in  no  mind  as  yet  to  welcome  King  Ladislas  in 
their  midst. 

Having  got  rid  of  the  obnoxious  ambassadors,  Gregory 
determined  to  set  forth  leisurely  on  his  journey  to  meet  liis 
rival.  He  had  to  satisfy  Paolo  Orsini  before  he  could  leave 
Rome,  and  he  made  over  to  him  certain  church  lands ;  others 
he  gave  to  three  of  his  lay  nephews.^  Having  thus  impoverished 
himself,  he  was  fain  to  tax  the  clergy  and  to  pillage  the  churches 
and  monasteries  ruthlessly  -  in  order  to  provide  funds  for  his 
journey.  He  left  Rome  on  the  9th  August,  reached  Viterbo 
on  the  15th,  and  halted  there  for  twenty  days.  Thence  he 
moved  on  to  Siena,  which  he  reached  on  the  4th  September, 
being  received  with  great  rejoicing  and  honour.  He  wrote  to 
the  Count  of  Montferrat  to  protect  him  at  Savona. 

At  Siena  ambassadors  met  the  Pope  from  Kings  Wenzel  and 
Sigismund  and  also  from  Henry  of  England.  These  monarchs 
were  alarmed  at  the  proposal  for  a  conference  at  Savona.  They 
represented  that  it  was  a  French  city,  it  having  passed,  when  it 
revolted  from  Genoa,  to  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  and  having  been 
by  him  transferred  to  the  King  of  France.  The  Pope's  life,  said 
the  ambassadors,  would  be  in  danger ;  he  would  be  forced  to 
resign  against  his  will ;  there  was  no  chance  of  any  Pope  being 
elected  whom  they  could  or  would  obey ;  the  Schism  would  be 
perpetuated.^  The  French,  said  Sigismund,  had  been  the 
original  cause  of  the  Schism,  and  were  the  cause  of  its  con- 
tinuance.* King  Ladislas  continually  represented  to  Gregory 
that  he  had  no  right  to  resign,  seeing  that  he  alone  was  the 
true  Pope,  and  that  the  kingdom  of  Naples  would  never  obey 
any  other.  The  Venetians  and  the  Florentines,  on  the  other 
hand,  reminded  him  of  his  vow  :  it  was  his  duty  as  a  good 
Christian  to  put  an  end  to  the  Schism  ;  although  the  Venetians 
at  the  same  time  advised  him  not  to  trust  himself  at  Savona, 
which  belonged  to  their  rivals  the  Genoese,  but  to  meet  his 
rival  elsewhere.  The  Pope  himself  could  not  overcome  his 
distrust  of  Genoa  and  its  governor;  he  distrusted  moreover 
that  masterful  Cardinal  Legate,  Baldassare  Cossa;  he  was 
persuaded  that  his   life  would   not   be   safe  at  Savona.     His 

^   '  Aliqua  castra,  civitates,  et  terras  tcclesiae '  :  De  Schismate,  238. 

-  De  Schismate,  239,  247.  '  Tartini,  ii.  571-2.  *  Goeller,  21,  note. 


268     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

nephews  also  had  immense  influence  over  him.  That  rigid 
Dominican  Giovanni  had  been  seduced  by  the  pay  of  a 
Florentine  ambassador  and  by  the  dainty  feeding  at  Gregory's 
court  from  his  former  austerity ;  he  had  become  Gregory's 
confessor ;  he  had  given  up  his  early  ardour  for  the  union  and 
had  learned  to  preach  comfortable  things;  he  also  dissuaded  the 
Pope  from  going  to  Savona.  Gregory  organised  processions  on 
behalf  of  the  union  ;  he  gave  the  Beghards  indulgences  to  sell ; 
he  commissioned  the  Mendicant  Friars  to  set  forth  the  fatal 
perils  which  he  and  his  cardinals  would  undergo  if  they  ventured 
as  far  as  Savona.^  He  busied  himself  in  cultivating  public 
opinion  to  excuse  his  own  feebleness  and  neglect  of  duty.  He 
entered  into  wearisome  negotiations  with  the  Lord  of  Lucca, 
which  astonished  and  irritated  Paolo  de  Guinigi ;  '  the  Pope 
asks  permission  to  come  into  my  lands  and  then  seems  to  doubt 
me."  It  was  not  until  near  the  end  of  January  that  Pope 
Gregory,  accompanied  by  a  large  body  of  Florentine  men-at- 
arms,  advanced  in  the  thick  of  the  frost  and  the  snow  as  fai" 
as  Lucca,  where  the  fortresses  were  given  into  his  hands. 

On  the  3rd  November  1407  three  ambassadors  from  Gregory, 
his  nephew  Francesco  and  two  others,  appeared  at  Savona  and 
set  forth  eleven  several  reasons  for  their  masters  failure  to 
appear  either  on  the  first  or  the  second  term  provided  by  the 
treaty.  Having  regard  to  the  great  expense  entailed  on 
himself  and  on  the  King  of  Aragon,  Benedict  had  at  first  been 
inclined  to  retrace  his  steps,  and  would  certainly  have  been 
justified  in  so  doing.  Naturally  he  declined  to  enter  into  any 
second  treaty,  seeing  that  the  powers  of  the  ambassadors  were 
insufficient  and  Gregory  might  subsequently  disavow  their 
acts.  But  seeing  that  Gregory  had  promised  to  come  to 
Pietra  Sancta,  Benedict  would  go  to  meet  him ;  he  would  not 
let  the  chance  of  a  meeting  fail  through  his  own  fault ;  even 
though  his  rival  had  failed  to  abide  by  the  Treaty  of 
Marseilles,  he  would  give  him  the  opportunity  of  making  the 
grand  renunciation.  He  therefore  promised  to  go  with  his 
cardinals  to  Porto  Venere,  and  he  declared  that  he  would  hold 
Gregory  free  from  his  obligation  to  come  to  Savona,  provided 
he  came,  as  he  had  already  himself  proposed,  to  Pietra  Sancta.^ 

^  De  Schisinate,  249-50.  '  Martene,  ii.  1388. 


^    ^       .tMf^ 


Lc^iuis,   Di'KE  OK  Orlkan>. 


THE  WAY  OF  CONVENTION        269 

This  was  publicly  explained  by  his  ambassadors  in  the 
Cathedral  of  Siena  on  the  24th  November  in  the  presence  of 
Pope  Gregory  and  his  twelve  cardinals,  in  the  presence  also  of 
the  English  and  French  ambassadors  and  of  a  large  crowd 
of  listeners.^  But  before  Benedict  set  sail  from  Savona  a 
tremendous  catastrophe  befell  him. 

On  the  23rd  November  1407  Louis,  Duke  of  Orleans,  was 
foully  assassinated  by  the  order  of  Jean  sans  Peur,  Duke  of 
Burgundv.  The  Duke  of  Orleans,  born  on  the  13th  March 
1372,  was  the  younger  and  well-loved  brother  of  King  Charles 
the  Sixth,  He  was  handsome,  devout,  learned,  and  witty ;  he 
could  hold  his  own  with  the  doctors  of  the  University  as  well 
as  with  the  princes  in  council ;  he  was  extravagant  in  expendi- 
ture, unscrupulous  as  to  means,  passionately  fond  of  pleasure, 
luxury,  and  pomp,  royal  in  his  liberality  to  princes  or  to 
Celestins.^  When  only  fifteen  years  of  age  he  had  married 
Valentine,  a  year  his  senior,  the  beautiful  daughter  of  Gian 
Galeazzo,  and  although  he  was  faithless  to  her,  the  alliance 
kept  him  true  to  the  side  of  the  Duke  of  Milan  and  of  King 
Wenzel  of  Bohemia  against  their  rivals  Rupert,  King  of  the 
Romans,  and  the  house  of  Bavaria,  whose  influence  in  France 
was  upheld  by  the  King's  beautiful  wife  Isabel,  daughter  of 
Stephen  of  Bavaria.  When  Charles  was  first  attacked  by 
madness  in  1392,  the  Duke  put  forward  his  claim  to  govem 
France  on  his  brother's  behalf;  but  the  influence  of  the  Dukes 
of  Burgundy  and  Ben-i  was  too  powerful  for  the  young 
aspirant  to  power.  In  that  same  year  King  Charles  and  Pope 
Clement  had  proposed  to  conquer  and  create  a  kingdom  of 
Adria  in  Italy  for  the  benefit  of  Louis  of  Orleans ;  two  fresh 
paroxysms  of  the  King's  madness,  some  necessary  negotiations 
with  England,  discussions  as  to  the  infeudation  of  the  proposed 
kingdom,  had  caused  two  years'  delay,  and  finally  the  death 
of  Pope  Clement  the  Seventh  had  rendered  the  project  abor- 
tive. But,  notwithstanding  this,  the  Duke  soon  became  a 
friend  of  the  new  Pope.  He  had  a  touch  of  the  old  crusading 
spirit  in  him  and  was  a  Chevalier  de  la  Passion  :  ^  he  accom- 
panied his  uncles  on  the  embassy  to  Avignon  in  1395 ;  he  fell 
under  the  spell  of  Benedict,  and  thencefoi^ward  became  his 
'  Ehrle,  vii.  627.  '^  Coville,  24.  '  Jarry,  53. 


270     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

staunch  ally  and  adherent ;  he  lost  no  opportunity  subsequently 
of  thwarting  the  plans  of  his  uncle  of  Burgundy,  the  strongest 
and  most  masterful  of  the  sons  of  the  luckless  Kine:  John  of 
France,  who  had  from  1392  been  at  the  head  of  the  party 
which  demanded  the  Pope's  abdication.^  The  Duke  of  Orleans 
did  his  best  to  oppose  the  proposal  for  the  subtraction  of 
obedience,  and  did  not  sign  the  ordonnance  with  the  other 
royal  Dukes,^  Kelations  between  him  and  his  uncle  became 
so  strained  that  it  came  to  the  brink  of  a  civil  war.  When 
Philip  of  Burgundy  died  in  1404,  the  Duke  at  once  obtained 
the  first  place  in  the  State ;  he  made  friends  with  the  Queen, 
and  between  them  they  misgoverned  France  right  royally. 
Philip  of  Burgundy  was  succeeded  by  his  less  intelligent 
and  more  impetuous  son  John,  who  only  obtained  fifth 
place  in  the  royal  council.  The  new  duke  was  a  short  man 
with  a  big  head,  high  cheek-bones,  strongly  marked  features, 
frail  of  body  and  short  of  stature ;  he  had  nothing  of  the 
grand  seigneur  about  him  save  ambition  and  tenacity  of 
purpose.  He  was  slow  of  speech  ;  profuse  and  lavish  if  occasion 
required,  but  neither  extravagant  nor  a  gambler ;  clever  and 
daring,  unscrupulous,  remorseless  and  treacherous,  a  profound 
politician  of  the  school  of  Machiavelli  and  Caesar  Borgia; 
ambitious  to  rule  the  realm  of  France  even  though  he  had  to 
invoke  the  aid  of  her  hereditary  enemies  to  secure  his  object. 
He  was  destined  to  introduce  into  the  troubled  politics  of  that 
time  two  new  factors  :  political  assassination,  or  the  removal  by 
murder  of  a  rival  whom  the  ordinary  courts  of  law  were 
powerless  to  touch ;  and  the  invocation  of  the  aid  of  the 
democracy  as  a  power  in  the  State.  Between  two  royal 
princes  so  utterly  opposed  in  character  and  in  aims,  hostility 
was  certain.^  When  the  Duke  of  Burgundy's  expedition  in 
Picardy  in  1405  proved  abortive,  he  became  still  more  inflamed 
against  his  cousin  of  Orleans,  whose  own  expedition  in  Guienne, 
ruined  by  his  delay  and  malversation,  covered  him  with  ridicule 
and  disgrace.  The  hostility  between  the  Dukes  of  Orleans 
and  Burgundy  grew  fiercer ;  they  armed  their  followers ;  a 
state  of  open  war  was  once  more  imminent.  Louis  of  Orleans 
still   remained,   through   good  report  and  through   evil,  the 

*  Bess,  22.  2  Jarry,  2o8.  ^  Coville,  35  ;  Jtarante,  ii\,  208. 


THE  WAY  OF  CONVENTION        271 

staunch  supporter  of  Pope  Benedict ;  he  was  the  one  roval 
prince  in  France  on  whom  the  Pope  could  consistently  count 
for  support.  In  November  1407  the  royal  cousins  were 
apparently  reconciled ;  they  took  the  sacrament  together. 
Three  days  later  Jean  sans  Peur  had  his  cousin  treacherously 
murdered,  even  as  Justinian  had  murdered  Vitalian  a  thousand 
years  earlier.  He  confessed  liis  crime,  gloried  in  it,  had  it 
elaborately  justified  by  Jean  Petit,  the  Norman  Doctor.  The 
Duke  of  Burgundy  was  for  some  years  to  be  the  governing 
spirit  in  France ;  he  was  bitterly  opposed  to  the  Pope  and 
in  favour  of  the  subtraction  of  obedience ;  his  influence  over 
the  ecclesiastical  policy  of  the  French  court  was  now  to  be 
supreme ;  the  coming  Council  of  Pisa  was  to  be  held  under  the 
Burgundian  protectorate.^  It  was  with  a  sense  of  weakened 
strength  and  lost  power  that  Benedict  embarked  at  Savona  on 
the  23rd  December.  He  called  at  Genoa,  left  there  on  the 
last  day  of  the  year,  and  on  the  3rd  January  1408  reached  the 
little  port  of  Porto  Venere  at  the  entrance  to  the  Gulf  of 
Spezia. 

Porto  Venere,  thirty-live  miles  as  the  crow  flies  from  Lucca, 
had  been  subject  to  Genoa,  and  was  consequently  now  a  French 
town,  and  within  the  obedience  of  Pope  Benedict.  The  quaint 
little  harbour  on  the  Ligurian  Sea,  separated  by  the  Island 
Palmaria  from  the  beautiful  Gulf  of  Spezia,  with  hills  in  the 
background  on  whose  snowclad  summits  the  sun  flushes  pink 
in  the  evenings  of  winter  or  early  spring,  was  a  tiny  spot  for 
so  august  an  assemblage.  A  horse  could  scarce  find  a  foothold 
there,-  but  on  the  other  hand  it  was  perfectly  safe.  Petrarch 
had  described  it  as  an  ericr  fortiss'ima ;  and  it  had  recently 
been  strongly  fortified  by  the  Genoese.  On  the  Sunday  of 
Mid-Lent,  Pope  Benedict  said  Mass  with  complete  security  in 
the  little  church  of  San  Pietro  on  the  rocky  eminence.  It 
had  been  'built  by  Pisans  with  alternate  rows  of  black  and 
white  marble,  upon  the  site  of  an  old  temple  of  Venus — a 
modest  and  pure  piece  of  Gothic  architecture,  fair  in  desola- 
tion, refined  and  dignified,  and  not  unworthy  in  its  grace  of 
the  dead  Cyprian  goddess.  Through  its  broken  lancets  the 
sea-wind  whistles  and  the  vast  reaches  of  Tyrrhene  gulf  are 

'  Bess,  II.  -  Mur.  iii.  805. 


272     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

seen.  Samphire  sprouts  between  the  blocks  of  marble,  and  in 
sheltered  nooks  the  caper  hangs  her  beautiful  purpureal  snowy 
bloom/ ^  Had  Pope  Gregory  ventured  into  Porto  Venere  he 
might  have  been  cut  off  by  the  French  from  Lerici,  or  by  the 
men  of  Spezia  who  had  recently  fortified  their  own  city.  To 
guard  against  this  the  King  of  France  offered  to  put  into  his 
hands  the  town  of  Sarzana,  with  its  picturesque  fortress  con- 
structed by  Castruccio  Castracani  eighty  years  earlier,  together 
with  the  suiTounding  forts ;  and  these  would  have  been  an 
ample  security  to  Gregory. 

Gregory  had  said  that  he  would  come  as  far  as  Pietra 
Sancta.  On  the  28th  January  he  left  Siena  and  came  across 
the  snow-covered  country  to  Lucca.  Lucca,  girt  round  by 
the  Apennines,  where  at  that  season  of  the  year 

'  Jupiter  hihernas  cana  nive  conspuit  Alpes/ 

had  eighty  years  earlier  been  the  city  of  Castruccio  Castracani. 
It  had  subsequently  purchased  its  freedom  from  the  Emperor 
Charles  the  Fourth  ;  it  was  now  under  the  sway  of  a  native  lord, 
Paolo  Guinigi,  who  was  devoted  to  Pope  Gregory.  With  one 
Pope  at  Porto  Venere  and  the  other  at  Lucca,  only  a  few 
leagues  apart,  it  needed  only  the  presence  of  an  Emperor  of 
the  Holy  Roman  Empire  to  bring  them  together  and  to 
compel  them  to  do  that  for  which  all  Christendom  was  waiting. 
But,  alas !  there  was  no  Emperor,  there  was  no  King  of  the 
Romans  worthy  of  the  name.  Wenzel  was  a  slothful  drunkard, 
and  Rupert  was  miserably  ineffective.  There  was  no  vis  major 
to  compel  the  Popes  to  act.  Gregory  had  come  as  far  as 
Lucca,  but  it  seemed  as  if  nothing  would  induce  him  to 
advance  the  remaining  fifteen  miles  to  Pietra  Sancta. 

On  the  1st  February  Benedict  sent  ambassadors  to  urge 
Gregory  to  continue  his  march.  He  professed  to  be  still  full  of 
ardour  for  the  union.  '  Thus  far  have  I  come  because  I  desired 
and  still  desire  it ;  nay,  I  am  ready  at  once  to  effect  it,  if  you 
can  show  me  sufficient  authority  from  your  lord  that  he  is  ready 
to  do  the  like.'  But  he  insisted  that  the  place  of  their  meet- 
ing must  first  be  settled.  Ambassadors  from  Venice  came  and 
preached  in  favour  of  speedy  action ;  others  from  Rome,  from 
^  Syinonds,  Sketches  and  Studies  in  Italy  and  Greece,  ii.  142, 


THE  WAY  OF  CONVENTION        273 

Florence,  from  Peruofia  and  Bologna  urged  the  objection  to 
any  further  delay. ^  Gregory  listened  to  them  all  with  deaf 
ears.  The  envoys  of  Benedict  proposed  Porto  Venere  or 
Spezia  as  tiie  place  of  meeting,  or  their  Pope  should  come 
to  Lerici  or  Ameglia,  Leghorn  was  suggested  as  a  suitable 
place,  being  in  the  spiritual  obedience  of  Gregory  and  in  the 
temporal  obedience  of  the  King  of  France  ;  but  Gregory  would 
not  allow  his  cardinals  even  to  inspect  the  place.  He  proposed 
a  number  of  places  in  Tuscany,  to  which  the  ambassadors 
objected  by  reason  of  the  danger  from  King  Ladislas.  It  was 
then  proposed  that  Gregory  should  go  to  Pisa  and  Benedict 
to  Leghorn,  where  they  would  only  be  eleven  miles  apart.  Tlie 
French  envoys  tried  to  induce  Benedict  to  go  to  Pisa  or  Lucca ; 
but  King  Ladislas  wrote  saying  that,  if  the  Popes  met  at  Pisa, 
he  should  himself  be  present,  and  the  Cardinal  of  Poitiers 
advised  Benedict  on  no  account  to  go  to  Pisa  or  to  put  himself 
in  the  hands  of  the  Florentines.-  This  proposal  was  replaced 
by  another  made  by  the  envoys  from  France,  Poland,  and  some 
Italian  cities,  which  was  very  manifestly  to  the  advantage  of 
Gregory.  This  was  that  he  should  come  to  Carrara,  then  as 
now  celebrated  for  its  marble  quarries,  and  that  Benedict 
should  take  up  his  abode  in  the  little  village  of  Avenza,  which 
was  guarded  by  the  castle  of  Castruccio  Castracani  with  its 
bold  round  towers  and  pinnacles.  The  rivals  would  then  have 
been  but  three  miles  apart :  both  places  were  in  the  Urbanist 
obedience,  and  within  the  territories  of  the  Signor  of  Lucca, 
who  was  devoted  to  Pope  Gregory.  But  the  Roman  Pope 
regarded  this  plan  as  a  trap,  and  refused  even  to  have  Carrara 
inspected  :  why  should  they  betake  themselves  to  little  insecure 
castles  when  the  town  of  Pisa  was  at  their  service  ?  Paolo 
Guinigi  and  the  Florentines  offered  to  be  security  to  Benedict 
if  he  and  his  cardinals  would  go  to  Pisa,  but  before  any  answer 
had  been  given  Gregory  withdrew  his  offer.  The  project  for  Pisa 
and  Leghorn  was  again  broached ;  but  when  on  this  occasion 
Benedict  seemed  likely  to  agree,  Gregory  again  hesitated. 

It  seemed  impossible  to  come  to  any  agreement.     Neither 
Pope  would  hear  of  abdication  by  proctors.      Twice    before 
had  collusion  between  the  rival  Popes  been  suspected ;   mes- 
^  De  Sihismatc,  253.  -  Ehrle,  vii.  631-3. 


274     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

sengers  were  again  passing  between  them,  and  men  began  again 
to  suspect  that  each  was  urging  his  rival  to  keep  up  the  outward 
show  of  negotiation,  but  not  to  give  way.^     However  this  may 
have  been,  nothing  availed   to  bring  the  Popes  nearer  each 
other.     Each  apparently  profoundly  distrusted  the  other,  each 
thought  that  his  rival  wished  to  put  himself  in  a  position  in 
which  all  the  material  power  should  be  on  his  own  side.    Gregory 
refused  to  advance  from  Lucca,  Benedict  thought  that  he  had 
already  gone  far  enough.     The  situation  was  aptly  described 
by  Leonardo  of  Arezzo  in  a  letter  to  Petrillo  of  Naples  :  '  You 
would  have  said  that  one  of  them  was  a  water  rat  afraid  of  the 
shore,  and  that  the  other  was  a  land  rat  afraid  of  the  water."  ^ 
The   ambassadors  of  different  courts   wearied    themselves   in 
endeavours  to  secure  the  meeting  :  his  cardinals  prayed,  begged, 
and  besought  Gregory ;  they  pestered  him  at  all  hours  of  the 
day  and  night,  in  public  and  in  private,  at  his  palace  and  at 
church,  but  without  avail.     Finally,  a  certain  brother  of  the 
Carmelite  Order,  after  Mass,    lectured    Gregory  pubhcly    in 
church  on  his  bad  faith,  his  broken  vow,  his  perjury.     This 
was  more  than  the  aged  Pontiff  could   stand:    his  nephews 
haled  the  indiscreet  preacher  from  the  church  in  which  at  the 
time  of  vespers  he  and  certain  orators  and  ambassadors  had 
assembled;  the  zealous  Carmelite  was  imprisoned  and  sentenced 
to  bread  and  water ;  but  for  his  good  friends  he  might  never 
have  seen  the  Hght  of  heaven  again.^     The  Pope  ordered  that 
no  sermons  should  be  preached   which    had    not  passed  the 
censure  ;  and  several  bishops  who  should  have  officiated  with 
him  during  Easter,  in  disgust  at  his  perjury,  withdrew  them- 
selves from  Lucca,     The  ambassadors  of  France  and  Venice, 
and  the  cardinals  themselves,  seeing  how  impossible  it  was  to 
effect  a  meeting  of  the  rival  pontiffs,  proposed  that  they  should 
abdicate  simultaneously  at  a  distance  by  means  of  proctors, 
but  each  Pope  scouted  this  proposal.     The  fact  was  that  at 
this  time  each  had  his  attention  anxiously  fixed  on  Rome  and 
on  what  was  happening  there. 

Paolo  Orsini  was  meditating  fresh  treachery.     His  scheme 
was  to  checkmate  Ladislas  of  Naples  by  delivering  Rome  to 

1  Martene,  ii.  1342;  Valois,  iii.  536.  "  Mur.  xix.  927. 

^  Dc  Sckismate,  258. 


THE  WAY  OF  CONVENTION        275 

the  Constable  Boucicaut,  thus  playing  the  traitor  to  his  own 
patron,  Gregory  the  Twelfth,  and  delivering  Rome  virtually 
into  the  hands  of  Benedict  the  Thirteenth.  The  Constable 
and  Jacques  de  Prades,  Constable  of  Aragon  and  one  of  the 
ambassadors  from  that  kingdom,  assembled  their  ships  at 
Porto  Venere  ;  Benedict  himself  put  four  galleys  at  their  dis- 
posal, and  impressed  priests  and  monks  as  oarsmen  ;  but  the 
weather  was  against  them  and  the  fleet  never  started.^  Mean- 
time  the  King  of  Naples  was  not  idle.  He  had  got  the 
Florentines  to  agree  that  they  would  not  help  the  Pope  nor 
Paolo  Orsini,  who  held  Rome  for  Gregory.  On  this  Ladislas 
concentrated  his  troops  on  Rome,  stationed  four  galleys  which 
prevented  victuals  being  imported  into  the  city,  and  won  over 
Paolo  Orsini,  promising  to  make  him  Lord  of  Rome.  In 
April  Ladislas  took  Ostia  ;  on  the  22nd  he  was  under  the 
walls  of  Rome.  There  was  a  slight  fight  between  his  soldiers 
and  those  of  Paolo  Orsini,  in  which  the  advantage  lay  with  the 
Romans ;  but  on  that  night  the  faithless  condottiere  general 
completed  his  treachery,  joined  the  Colonna  and  the  Savelli  in 
the  enemy's  camp,  and  next  day  introduced  some  of  the  King's 
troops  into  Rome.  The  Romans,  seeing  that  they  were  be- 
trayed, howled  anathemas  at  the  traitor,  but  sent  ambassadors 
to  make  terms,  and  surrendered  their  city.  The  winter  had 
been  very  hard  for  the  citizens ;  thunder  and  lightning,  snow 
and  hail  and  mighty  winds  had  terrified  them ;  famine  had 
become  so  severe  that  a  man  gladly  bought  for  double  its 
ordinary  price  bread  that  he  usually  thought  fit  only  for  a 
dog,  and  was  only  allowed  to  buy  a  single  loaf  at  that.  Under 
these  evil  auspices,  on  the  25th  April  the  King  of  Naples  made 
a  triumphal  entry  into  the  Eternal  City  under  a  canopy  borne 
aloft  by  Roman  nobles.  He  refused  to  alight  at  the  Pope's 
palace,  deeming  himself  safer  at  the  house  of  the  Papal  Cham- 
berlain :  there  was  plentiful  feasting ;  the  King  put  up  lists 
and  two  pavilions  in  the  Square  of  Saint  Peter  and  held  a 
tourney  there.  Ladislas  appointed  nine  new  Conservators  of 
his  own,  quashing  the  appointments  which  had  previously 
been  made  by  the  Cardinal  of  Saint  Angelo.  He  tarried  for 
two  months  among  his  new  subjects,  arranged  for  the  govern- 
^  Boucicaut,  380-85. 


276     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

ment  of  their  city,  received  ambassadors  from  Florence  and 
Lucca;  the  cities  of  Perugia,  Orta,  Terni,  Todi,  and  Rieti  at 
once  submitted  to  him.  Then,  well  satisfied  with  his  success, 
he  left  Rome  on  the  23rd  June  to  return  to  Naples.^ 

Rightly  or  wrongly,  every  one  believed  that  the  King  of 
Naples  had  been  acting  in  collusion  with  Pope  Gregory.  The 
news  reached  Lucca,  Ladislas  had  entered  Rome;  Gregory 
must  return  there.  The  Pope  was  evidently  well  pleased  at 
the  victory  of  his  '  best-beloved  son  Ladislas ' ;  his  nephews, 
Antonio  and  Paolo,  burst  into  transports  of  joy ;  others  of  his 
household  illuminated  their  dwellings  and  held  glad  dances 
therein.  Gregory  was  relieved  ;  no  one  could  expect  him  under 
existing  circumstances  to  continue  the  negotiations ;  he  deter- 
mined to  break  them  off.  He  accused  Pope  Benedict  and 
Marshal  Boucicaut  of  collecting  ships  to  make  an  attempt  on 
Rome,  which  the  foul  weather  had  alone  averted  ;  -  he  dis- 
missed his  rival's  ambassadors  on  the  11th  May,  breaking  off' 
all  negotiations  for  the  cession ;  he  forbade  his  own  court  ever 
to  mention  the  union  of  the  Church  to  him  again  ;  he  resolved, 
in  violation  of  his  coronation  oath,  to  fulfil  the  intention  which 
he  had  first  formed  at  Viterbo,  and  to  create  a  fresh  batch  of 
cardinals.  Gregory,  like  Benedict,  had  to  contend  against  his 
own  sacred  college ;  each  body  was  more  anxious  that  its  head 
should  abdicate  than  its  head  was  apparently  ready  to  resign. 
When  Baldassare  Cossa,  in  name  the  Papal  Legate  but  now  in 
reality  the  sovereign  Lord  of  Bologna,  sent  to  Gregory  offering 
him  faithful  obedience  if  the  Pope  would  but  keep  his  word,^ 
his  embassy  was  scorned,  and  Cossa  thenceforth  played  his  own 
game,  taking  the  lead  in  the  party  which  promoted  the  Council 
of  Pisa.  If  neither  Pope  nor  Emperor  would  call  an  oecumeni- 
cal council,  the  Papal  Legate  was  ready  to  advocate  a  council 
to  be  called  by  the  cardinals  on  their  own  authority. 

The  capture  of  Rome  by  King  Ladislas  completely  altered 
the  aspect  of  affairs  in  Italy.  He  was  now  the  commanding 
figure  in  the  peninsula,  and  he  aspired  to  be  Emperor.  Gregory 
wrote  to  him  to  ask  for  a  suitable  escort,  and  the  King  would 
have  complied,  but  the  Florentines  objected,  and  themselves 

'  Mur.  xxiv.  990-3.  '•*  Hefele,  vi.  904. 

»  Hardt,  ii.  351. 


THE  WAY  OF  CONVENTION        277 

provided  the  necessary  men  f'oi-  the  Pope  when  he  was  ready  to 
leave  Lucca.  The  departure  of  Ladislas  for  Naples  relieved 
the  immediate  fears  of  the  men  of  Florence ;  but  the  King 
announced  that,  if  the  rival  Popes  met,  he  meant  to  be  present, 
seeing  that  he  liad  his  own  interests  to  safeguard  no  less  than 
those  of  the  Church,  of  which  he  was  Protector.  This  would 
have  deprived  the  Popes  of  all  independence  of  action ;  so  that 
this  announcement  rendered  the  conference  and  the  simul- 
taneous abdication  an  impossibility. 

Full  of  his  plan  for  the  creation  of  a  new  batch  of  cardinals, 
Gregory  summoned  the  college  to  his  palace  on  the  4th  May. 
They  came,  and  found  the  place  full  of  armed  men,  so  that 
they  feared  for  their  lives.  The  Pope  scowled  at  them,  bidding 
them  be  seated  and  not  move  without  his  permission.  As  soon 
as  he  began  the  office  for  the  creation  of  new  members,  they 
rose  in  a  body  and  protested  against  such  a  violation  of  his 
coronation  oath.  Tliey  tried  to  leave  the  building,  but  found 
the  doors  guarded.  Tlie  w'eak  old  man  then  gave  way;  but  before 
he  let  them  go  he  forbade  them  to  leave  Lucca,  or  to  hold  any 
meeting  without  his  permission,  or  to  communicate  with  the 
French  ambassadors  or  with  those  of  his  rival.  He  knew  that 
his  cardinals  disapproved  of  his  tergiversations ;  he  relied  on 
the  support  of  his  nephews  and  of  his  confessor,  the  reci'eant 
Dominican.  On  the  9th  May  he  called  the  cardinals  together 
again,  but  the  majority  of  them  alleged  illness  and  declined  to 
appear.  In  their  absence,  however,  the  Pope  created  four  new 
cardinals.  Among  these  were  his  nephew  Antonio,  who  had 
aiTanged  the  Treaty  of  Marseilles ;  the  Dominican  Friar 
Giovanni,  who  of  late  had  consistently  supported  the  ambassa- 
dors of  King  Ladislas ;  and  also  the  future  Pope  Eugenius  the 
Fourth,  the  nephew,  or  as  some  said  the  son,  of  Gregory  him- 
self. The  fourth  was  the  protonotary  Jacopo  of  Friuli,  who 
aforetime  had  been  a  doctor  of  medicine.^  The  Pope  had 
now  definitely  broken  with  his  entourao-e ;  thev  could  not  trust 
him,  though  the  Lord  of  Lucca  pi-omised  to  protect  the 
cardinals.  They  knew  that  it  was  useless  to  expect  Gregory  to 
do  anything  toward  ending  the  Schism.  The  cardinals  saw 
that,  unless  the  Schism  were  ended,  a  subtraction  of  obedience 
'  Ciaconius,  ii.  766. 


278     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

was  imminent  and  that  their  own  revenues  and  livelihood  were 
endangered.  They  therefore  lent  a  willing  ear  to  the  suggestion 
that  they  should  leave  Lucca  for  a  safer  place  where  they 
could  act  independently  of  the  Pope. 

Three  of  the  cardinals  were  too  weak  and  ill  to  travel.  The 
others  went  to  Paolo  Guinigi,  Lord  of  Lucca,  entered  a  solemn 
protest  against  their  master's  acts,  and  obtained  permission  to 
depart.  On  the  morning  of  the  11th  May,  the  Cardinal  of 
Liege,  dressed  as  a  simple  priest,  left  the  city  on  horseback. 
Paolo  Corrario,  the  Pope's  nephew,  sent  horsemen  after  hini, 
who  were  on  the  point  of  overtaking  him,  when  the  Cardinal 
gained  the  Castle  of  Ripafi'atta  in  the  Pisan  territory,  and  his 
pursuers  were  di'iven  back  by  the  guard.  Paolo  Guinigi,  who 
had  no  desire  to  fall  out  with  the  Florentines,  now  interfered, 
took  the  Pope's  horsemen  prisoners,  and  instilled  a  wholesome 
fear  into  Gregory  and  his  nephew,^  warning  them  that  his 
safe-conduct  to  them  did  not  cover  acts  of  violence  on  their 
part.  On  the  evening  of  that  same  day  seven  more  cardinals, 
and  a  few  days  later  a  ninth,  escaped  from  Lucca  to  Pisa ;  ^ 
they  wrote  thence  to  Pope  Benedict,  inviting  him  to  come  to 
Leghorn. 

Now  that  he  knew  himself  to  be  deserted  by  the  court  of 
France,  Benedict  took  the  opportunity  of  showing  his  gratitude 
to  one  who  had  hitherto  always  been  faithful  to  him,  one  who 
was  ^  ferventissimus  in  factis  ecclesiae  et  bono  unionis.''  The 
Marshal  Jean  le  Meingre  dit  Boucicaut,  Governor  of  Genoa, 
had  in  1405  been  suspected  of  contemplating  a  coup  de  main 
in  favour  of  Benedict  and  of  delivering  Rome  to  him  by  force.^ 
The  Pope  had,  in  April  1407,  sent  him  a  mule  with  costly 
bridling;*  in  December  1407  he  freed  Jean's  brother  GeofFroi 
from  all  pains  and  penalties  which  he  had  incurred  during  the 
siege  of  Avignon;  in  February  1408  he,  again  at  Jean's 
request,  exhibited  a  like  favour  to  his  father-in-law,  Raimond 
de  Turenne ;  and  about  the  same  time  he  mortgaged  to  the 
Marshal  himself  four  castles  in  the  Comtat  Venaissin.^  It  was 
expenditure  well  incurred.  Once  again  were  the  names  of  the 
Pope  and  the  Governor  to  be  associated  in  connection  with  an 

1  Brieger,  xxviii.  195,  *  Mur.  iii.  837-40.  ^  Ehrle,  v.  480. 

*  Ehrle,  vi.  143.  '  //>id.  v.  481  ;  vi.  141. 


THE  WAY  OF  CONVENTION        279 

alleged  coup  de  main  on  Rome ;  and  the  Governor  was  to  allow 
the  Pope  to  escape  him  when  he  might  apparently  have 
captured  and  held  him  for  his  lord,  the  King  of  France. 

The  difference  in  tlie  French  policy,  now  that  there  was  no 
one  at  court  to  counterbalance  the  antagonism  of  the  Dukes 
of  Burgundy  and  Berri,  soon  made  itself  disagreeably  apparent 
to  the  Spanish  Pope.     On  the  12th  January  1408,  soon  after 
he  arrived  at  Porto  Venere  in  the  hope  of  meeting  his  rival, 
the  King  of  France  indited  a  letter  announcing  a  policy  of 
neutrality   between  the  rival   Popes   unless  on   or  before  the 
next  Feast  of  Ascension  there  was  '  union  in  our  Holy  Mother 
Church  and  one  only  true  and  acknowledged  Pope  and  Pastor 
of  the  Church  Universal.'  ^    The  publication  of  the  two  ordon- 
nances  of  the  subtraction  of  obedience  was  postponed  to  the 
same  date.     It   was   not  until  Easter  that  the  Pope  received 
this  letter,  so  that  he  had  barely  six  weeks  in  which  to  accom- 
plish the  great  work.    He  answered  the  King's  letter  forthwith, 
on  the  18th  April.     He  told  the  King  that  it  was  no  fault  of 
his  that  the  Church  was  not  already  united  ;  he  upbraided  him 
with    listening    to   perfidious   counsels,    with    cutting   off  the 
apostolic  taxes  so  that,  as  Jean  Petit  put  it,  no  water  came  to 
the  mill ;  "^  finally,  he  warned  King  Charles  that,  in  addition  to 
other  pains  and  penalties,  he  might  incur  those  enumerated  in 
a  certain  instrument  which  had  hitherto  remained  secret,  but 
of  which  he  sent  him  now  a  copy.     Pope  Benedict  enclosed  for 
the    King's  perusal  a  copy  of   the  Bull  of  excommunication 
which  he  had  held  in  reserve  since  the  19th  May  1407.     He 
knew  that  he  was  without  a  friend  at  the  French  court,  and 
must  have  foreseen  the  consequence.     The  letter  was  brought 
by  one  Sancho  Lopez,  who  gave  it  to  the  King  in  his  oratory 
on  the  morning  of  the  14th  May,  and  then  mysteriously  dis- 
appeared.    The  missive  was  opened  after  Mass  in  presence  of 
the  royal  dukes.     The  King's  anger  flamed  up  at  the  insult. 
Immediate  action  was  taken. 

The  French  court,  which  prided  itself  on  taking  no  step  in 

church   matters  save  in   conjunction   with   the  clergy  and  in 

accordance  with  their  wishes,    immediately   convened  a   fifth 

council  at  Paris  to  consider  the  Bull  promulgated  by  Benedict, 

^  Chastenet,  Preiwts,  260.  *  Ibid.  iii. 


280     m  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

and   to  give  an  ex  post  facto  sanction  to  the  subtraction  of 
obedience  from  him.     The  council  was  not  well  attended  ;  not 
more  than  five  archbishops  and  thirty  bishops  were  present. 
Pierre  d'Ailly  excused  himself  on  the  score  of  his  gout  and 
went   into  hiding;    the  Universities  of  Toulouse  and  Mont- 
pellier  were  not  represented.     But  to  make  up  for  its  lack  of 
numbers,  its  unanimity  was  wonderful.     The  assemblage  was 
held  in  the  palace  yard.     The  King,  the  royal  princes,   the 
nobility,  the  Parlement,  the  University  of  Paris,  and  the  public 
were  present.     Jean  Courtecuisse,  who  belonged  to  the  Navarre 
College  and  was  a  professor  of  theology,  was  the  orator.     He 
dilated  on  all  that  the  King  had  done  to  restore  unity  to  the 
Church ;    he    described    the    Bull   as  an  attack   on  the  royal 
authority  and  majesty  and  on  the  honour  of  the  kingdom ;  he 
anathematised  Pope  Benedict  as  a  persistent    schismatic  and 
heretic,  a  disturber  of  the  peace,  a  persecutor  of  the  Church. 
Even   the  moderate  and  conciliatory  Jean  Gerson,  who  had 
protested  against  the  subtraction  of  obedience,  was  aroused  to 
wrath  against  the  Pope  whom  he  had  hitherto  trusted,  but 
whom   he  would   never  trust  again ;    he  described  Benedict's 
procedure  as  a  step  full  of  detestable  rashness  and  falsehood. 
The  Pope's  cause   was   henceforth    hopeless  and  without  de- 
fenders in  France.    The  subtraction  of  obedience  was  approved 
by   all.     Pedro    de    Luna   was  never  henceforth  to  be  styled 
Pope    or  cardinal   or  even  Benedict;    he   was   held  to  be  an 
obstinate  heretic  and  schismatic  whom  no  one  was  to  obey ; 
all  his  acts  subsequent  to  the  19th  May  1407,  the  date  of  his 
Bull,  were  declared  to  be  null  and  void.    The  Bull  itself  was  held 
up  in  the  sight  of  all ;  the  parchment  was  unfolded  by  the  royal 
secretaries  ;  it  was  stabbed  with  penknives ;  it  was  torn  into 
two  parts — one  was  handed  to  the  princes  and  counsellors,  the 
other  to  the  University  and  the  clergy,  and  both  were  rent  into 
little  pieces.     France  had  done  with  Pope  Benedict  and  his 
Bulls.     Nicolas  de  Clamanges,  being  suspected  of  complicity 
with  the  Pope,  was  forced  to  defend  himself.     Pierre  d'Ailly, 
being  summoned  to  appear,  could  not  be  found ;  two  others, 
who  did  appear,  were  forthwith  imprisoned.     An   order   was 
sent  to  Marshal  Boucicaut  to  arrest  Pedro  de  Luna.     Sancho 
Lopez  and  his  unfortunate  courier  were  discovered  ;  they  were 


THE  WAY  OF  CONVENTION         281 

on  two  occasions  brought  in  dung-carts  to  trial,  and  were 
exposed  to  the  jeers  and  insults  of  the  populace  :  ^  they  were 
sentenced,  one  to  imprisonment  for  life,  the  other  to  three 
years'  detention.  Nor  did  the  royal  action  stop  here.  While 
the  council  was  still  sitting,  Simon  de  Cramaud  and  Pierre 
Plaoul  arrived  from  Italy  with  the  story  of  what  had  happened 
there.  On  the  i22nd  May,  King  Charles  wrote  to  the  cardinals 
of  the  Roman  Pope  entreating  them  to  abandon  their  master, 
who,  with  Pedro  de  Luna,  could  not  find  in  the  whole  world  a 
single  spot  in  which  the  two  rivals  might  fulfil  their  oaths  and 
vows  and  give  peace  to  the  mourning  and  desolate  Church.^ 
France  had  definitely  given  up  all  hope  of  the  simultaneous 
abdication  of  the  Popes. 

The  invitation  sent  by  the  cardinals  of  Gregory  to  Pope  Bene- 
dict to  join  them  at  Leghorn  was  one  which  the  determined 
little  Spaniard  would  have  been  only  too  glad  to  accept.  Could 
he  have  appeared  as  Pope  of  the  united  body  of  cardinals,  could 
he  have  induced  the  cardinals  of  both  obediences  to  recognise 
him  as  their  head,  he  would  be  in  a  fair  way  to  ultimate 
success.  On  the  20th  May  he  despatched  three  of  his  servants 
to  prepare  for  his  arrival  at  Leghorn  ;  he  wrote  to  the  Lord 
of  Lucca  to  ask  for  a  safe-conduct ;  he  sent  to  the  Florentines 
to  ensure  the  arrangements  for  commissariat.  To  the  cardinals 
who  had  invited  him  he  sent  four  of  his  own  cardinals  and 
four  other  envoys  in  whom  he  had  implicit  confidence.  The 
four  cardinals  were  the  old  Cardinal  of  Poitiers,  the  only  living 
member  who  had  been  raised  to  the  sacred  college  before  the 
Great  Schism  ;  De  Thury,  who  had  been  made  cardinal  by 
Clement  in  1385,  and  who  had  been  fierce  in  opposition  to 
Benedict  during  the  subtraction  of  obedience  ;  and  Pierre  Blau 
and  Antoine  de  Chalant,  to  whom  he  had  himself  given  their 
scarlet  hats.  They  were  to  take  counsel  with  the  cardinals  of 
Gregory  as  to  the  means  of  bringing  him  back  to  Pisa;  and  if 
this  was  impossible,  they  were  to  consult  briefly  concerning  the 
union  of  the  Church  and  to  report  quickly  to  Benedict  and  the 
rest  of  his  cardinals.^  Benedict's  cardinals,  however,  cast  their 
instructions  to  the  wind,  and  acted  in  utter  disregard  of  them. 
Unfortunately  for  him,  Paolo  Guinigi,  Lord  of  Lucca,  refused 
1  Monstrelet,  97.  "  Chastenet,  Preitves,  293.  ^  Ehrle,  vii.  646. 


282     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCH.S 

the  Spanish  Pope  the  safe-conduct  which  he  had  requested  ; 
and  the  Florentines  being  fearful  declined  to  act  without  the 
consent  of  King  Ladislas.  The  Pope  was  therefore  obliged  to 
give  up  his  intended  visit  to  Leghorn.  This  was  but  the 
beginning  of  misfortune.  Four  of  Gregory's  cardinals  came 
from  Pisa  to  Leghorn  to  meet  those  of  Benedict,  and  a  confer- 
ence was  held.  A  proposal  was  made  that  a  general  council 
of  the  cardinals  should  be  held  without  regard  to  either  Pope, 
To  this  Benedict's  cardinals  answered  that  they  could  not 
take  part  in  any  such  council  without  him,  but  that  he  would 
probably  welcome  the  proposal.  On  second  thoughts,  however, 
Pierre  Blau  took  up  the  project,  and  all  agreed  to  it.  They 
sent  to  Benedict  a  messenger,  who  reported  the  proposal  to 
hold  a  council  of  both  obediences,  but  who  omitted  to  say 
that  the  council  would  proceed  against  him,  as  well  as  against 
Gregory,  if  he  refused  to  abdicate.^  Benedict,  not  under- 
standing the  real  nature  of  the  proposal,  sent  messages  of 
satisfaction  and  encouragement  to  his  cardinals. 

Simon  de  Cramaud,  the  headstrong  Patriarch  of  Alexandria, 
the  man  who  himself  aspired  to  the  tiara,  had  meantime 
arrived  with  other  envoys  from  Paris,  bringing  news  of  the 
renewed  subtraction  of  obedience  and  of  the  intended  arrest  of 
Pope  Benedict.  The  envoys  and  the  Cardinal  de  Chalant  left 
Leghorn  humedly,  brought  back  two  galleys  to  the  Pope, 
gave  him  their  news,  and  counselled  him  to  put  himself  in 
safety.  For  two  or  three  days  longer  Benedict  still  lingered 
at  Porto  Venere ;  he  stationed  watchmen  to  be  on  the  lookout 
for  the  approach  of  any  enemy  by  land  or  by  sea.  He  pro- 
posed to  leave  five  plenipotentiaries  under  the  safeguard  of 
the  Constable  Boucicaut ;  but  Boucicaut  replied  that  if  they 
remained  it  must  be  at  their  own  risk  and  peril.  De  Chalant 
had  not  enlightened  the  Pope  as  to  the  intended  scope  of  the 
proposed  council ;  so  that  when  Benedict  sent  fresh  messages 
of  congratulation  to  his  three  cardinals  at  Leghorn,  suggesting 
that  he  would  like  to  explain  matters  to  them,  he  was  still  in 
the  dark  as  to  the  real  nature  of  their  proposed  scheme.  In 
their  answers  the  cardinals,  who  were  all  Frenchmen,  blamed 
the  Pope's  conduct  toward  France,  which  had  brought  about 

^  Valois,  iv.  6. 


THE  WAY  OF  CONVENTION         283 

a  renewed  rupture  with  that  country,  and  had  again  endangered 
their  revenues;  they  declined  to  rejoin  him  for  fear  of  break- 
ing off  the  negotiations.  There  was  nothing  for  the  deter- 
mined little  man  to  do  but  to  avoid  arrest  of  his  person  by 
leaving  Italy.  It  was  rumoured  that  not  only  Boucicaut,  but 
also  the  cardinals  at  Pisa,  intended  to  arrest  him,  and  tiiat 
King  Ladislas  of  Naples,  in  league  with  Pope  Gregory,  was 
also  on  his  heels.^ 

Accordingly  on  the  13th  June,  Pope  Benedict  wrote  to  his 
rival,  to  the  cardinals,  and  to  others ;  he  reproached  Gregory 
in  set  terms  as  the  cause  of  the  failure  to  secure  the  union  of 
the  Church  ;  he  blamed  the  conduct  of  the  French  envoys ; 
he  asserted  anew  his  own  unalterable  fidelity  to  the  high  aim 
he  had  set  before  him.  On  the  15th  June  1408  he  published 
an  encyclical,  announcing  to  the  world  at  large,  and  more 
particularly  to  the  princes  and  clergy  of  his  own  obedience, 
that  he  convoked  a  General  Council  to  assemble  at  Perpignan 
on  All  Saints'  Day  1408.  He  had  now  tarried  until  further 
waiting  was  perilous  to  his  personal  safety.  Next  morning, 
with  but  four  cardinals  in  his  train,  he  set  sail  from  Porto 
Venere.  He  had  made  a  strenuous  endeavour  to  bring  about 
the  '  way  of  convention,'  and  it  had  failed,  more  through  the 
fault  of  his  rival  than  his  own.  He  touched  at  Gallinaria,  he 
tarried  four  days  at  Villa  Fi-anca,  he  arrived  at  the  coast  of 
Rousillon  on  the  1st  July. 

Three  other  cardinals  of  the  Clementine  obedience  had 
meantime  joined  their  fellows  at  Leghorn.  As  they  had  not 
yet  definitely  broken  with  their  Pope  they  sent  off  news  to 
Benedict  on  the  14th  June  of  their  proposed  General  Council, 
and  intimated  that  they  could  not  support  his  project  for  a 
council  in  so  remote  a  spot  as  Perpignan.  On  the  J29th  the 
cardinals  took  a  fresh  and  decisive  step  in  advance.  Six 
cardinals  of  Benedict's  obedience,  and  seven  of  Gregory's, 
threw  off  their  allegiance  to  their  respective  Popes,  and  decided 
to  call  synods  of  their  own  obediences.  In  this  momentous 
step  they  were  backed  up  by  Cardinals  Filargi  of  Milan  and 
Baldassare  Cossa,  whose  proctor  signed  with  the  cardinals. 
The  Cardinal  Legate  of  Bologna  had  now  almost  got  the 
^  Lenfant,  i.  207. 


284     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

members  of  both  colleges  to  adopt  the  course  which  he 
approved.  The  cardinals  set  forth  that  through  the  remiss- 
ness of  both  pretenders  to  the  Papacy  the  task  of  caring  for 
the  peace  of  the  Church  had  fallen  on  them  ;  that  they  there- 
fore proposed,  with  the  aid  of  the  ruling  powers,  to  call  two 
synods  at  two  contiguous  places  for  next  Candlemas ;  that  each 
college  desired  its  own  Pope  to  appear  and  to  abdicate  at  the 
synod,  failing  which  he  would  be  deposed,  and  that  after  such 
abdication  or  deposition  they  would  proceed  to  choose  a  new 
sole  Head  of  the  Church. ^  On  the  1st  July,  the  day  before 
Gregory  promulgated  his  Bull  announcing  his  council,  the 
cardinals  solemnly  withdrew  their  obedience  from  him  ;  and 
on  the  3rd  Gregory,  finding  it  was  useless  to  try  to  win  them 
back,  published  a  declaration  depriving  them  of  their  posts 
and  emoluments. 

Pope  Gregory  meantime  had  decided  to  leave  Lucca.  The 
new  insults  and  defamatory  pamphlets  directed  against  him 
and  his  new  cardinals  in  this  city  had  become  intolerable.^ 
On  the  2nd  he  followed  the  example  set  by  his  rival,  and 
announced  that  he  too  intended  to  call  a  General  Council  of 
his  obedience;  he  was  unable  then  to  fix  the  place,  but  it  was 
to  be  somewhere  in  the  north  of  Italy,  for  the  convenience  of 
the  German  prelates.  On  the  14th  July  Gregory,  'very  thin 
in  the  face  and  livid  of  complexion  as  if  he  were  at  the  point 
of  death,'  moved  out  of  Lucca  with  his  Florentine  escort. 
'  Of  the  three  wavering  cardinals,  who  had  up  till  now  sup- 
ported him,  only  one  continued  with  him  still.  A  silver  cross 
was  borne  before  him,  and  the  Holy  Sacrament  was  carried 
as  usual  on  a  mule.  But  at  the  first  halt  at  Monte  Carlo,  in 
the  woods  outside  Lucca,  the  attendants  drank  too  much  of 
the  good  wine  of  the  place.  They  shouted,  "Oh  be  joyful  in 
the  Lord  ! ""  the  subdeacon  lost  the  silver  cross  and  carried  the 
empty  stick,  while  the  mule  got  driven  into  a  ditch,  where  it 
lay  for  two  hours  half-dead.  Next  night  they  saw  a  comet ; 
the  Pope  and  all  the  party  passed  a  sleepless  night ;  and  when 
they  reached  Siena  they  had  to  beg  permission  to  enter  the 
town  as  suppliants,  with  empty  purses  and  hungry  stomachs.'  ^ 

^  Hefele,  vi.  913.  -  De  Schismate,  290. 

'  Wylie,  iii.  347  ;  but  see  also  Erler,  179. 


THE  WAY  OF  CONVENTION         285 

Notwithstanding  the  double  convocation  of  councils  by  the 
rival  Popes,  the  cardinals  at  Leghorn  held  on  their  own  way.  On 
the  23rd  August  the  Florentines  passed  a  formal  act  enabling 
the  cardinals  to  hold  their  proposed  council  at  Pisa.  The 
'  way  of  convention '  had  failed  no  less  irretrievably  than  had 
the  '  way  of  cession '  before  it.  But  in  its  failure  it  had 
enabled  the  cardinals  of  both  obediences  to  meet  and  to 
fraternise ;  they  no  longer  distrusted  each  other  as  of  yore ; 
they  had  learned  that  it  was  possible  for  them  to  coalesce ; 
they  had  resolved  to  make  common  cause  against  the  rival 
Popes.  If  the  pontiffs,  by  reason  of  their  cowardly  mutual 
distrust  or  because  of  their  common  love  of  place  and  power, 
refused  to  give  peace  to  Christendom  and  to  end  the  accursed 
Schism,  it  was  the  duty  of  the  cardinals,  as  next  in  spiritual 
authority,  to  make  good  the  laches  of  their  superiors.  The 
idea  of  a  general  council  for  ending  this  particular  Schism  was 
as  old  as  the  Schism  itself;  but  opinions  as  to  its  practicability 
and  advisability  had  materially  changed  since  the  days  when 
a  general  council  was  first  proposed  by  the  Universities  of 
Paris,  Oxford,  and  Prague,^  since  the  days  when  the  angry 
Duke  of  Anjou  had  thrown  Jean  Rousse,  when  he  suggested  a 
council,  into  the  blackest  cachot  of  the  Chatelet.  The  general 
opinion  at  that  time,  notwithstanding  the  writings  of  Henry 
of  Langenstein,  was  that  the  '  way  of  council '  was  inordinately 
dilatory  and  wellnigh  impracticable.  But  the  utter  failure 
of  the  '  way  of  cession '  and  the  '  way  of  convention,'  coupled 
with  the  persistent  teaching  of  Jean  Gerson,  had  brought  a 
large  number  of  both  clergy  and  laymen  to  look  upon  the 
'  way  of  a  council '  as  the  only  practical  means  of  healing  the 
Great  Schism.  The  ancient  prestige  of  the  supreme  pontiff 
had  declined ;  it  had  declined  the  more  rapidly  now  that  there 
were  two  heads  of  the  Church,  each  anathematising  the  other ; 
the  welfare  of  the  Church  Universal  was  now  held  to  be  of 
paramount  importance :  the  Church  could  exist  without  a 
Pope,  seeing  that  the  Head  of  the  Church  was  Christ,  and 
that  the  Pope  was  merely  His  earthly  representative. 

The  chief  objection  to  the  proposed  council  at  Pisa  was 
that  the  convocation  of  an  oecumenical  council  should  be 
'  Palacky,  iii.  9. 


286     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

either  by  the  Pope  or  the  Emperor,  while  here  the  Popes 
had  both  convoked  councils  of  their  own,  and  the  Emperor 
neglected  to  act.  There  was  indeed  no  dejure  Emperor.  The 
convocation  on  the  authority  of  the  cardinals  was  utterly 
uncanonical ;  a  council  without  a  Pope  at  its  head  had  once 
been  dreamed  of  by  Cardinal  Napoleon  Orsini,  but  the  death 
of  Pope  John  the  Twenty-second  had  foiled  his  plans.  The 
present  project  was  an  attempt  boldly  to  cut  the  Gordian 
knot,  and  was  approved  by  the  Universities  of  Paris  and 
Bologna.^  It  was  a  project  eminently  likely  to  commend 
itself  to  a  hard-headed  man  of  action,  such  as  was  Baldassare 
Cossa,  the  Papal  Legate  at  Bologna. 

When  Gregory  declined  his  offer  of  assistance,  Cossa  fell 
oiF  from  him  ;  he  was  convinced  that  the  Pope  was  not  in 
earnest  in  his  pretended  desire  to  abdicate,  but  that  he 
was  '  feeding  the  people  with  words,'  He  disapproved  also  of 
the  appointment  of  the  Pope's  nephew  as  Bishop  of  Bologna, 
so  that  Antonio  Corrario  never  took  possession  of  his  see. 
The  Papal  Legate  was  at  open  enmity  with  Pope  Gregory 
when  Cardinal  Pietro  Filargi  came  to  Bologna  in  1408. 
News  of  the  assassination  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans  and  of 
the  subtraction  of  obedience  from  Pope  Benedict  had  been 
received  with  delight,  for  it  opened  up  a  new  vista  in 
papal  politics.  If  Benedict  was  without  support  in  France, 
and  Gregory  was  without  support  in  Italy,  they  must  both 
fall ;  the  cardinals  of  both  obediences  might  then  unite  and 
end  the  Schism  by  choosing  a  new  Pope.  Baldassare  Cossa 
saw  that  there  was  no  hope  of  the  rival  Popes  fulfilling  their 
renunciation,  and  already,  before  the  cardinals  abandoned 
Gregory,  he  was  in  treaty  with  Florence.  Whether  he  com- 
municated with  the  Roman  cardinals  prior  to  their  meeting 
the  four  French  cardinals  at  Leghorn  does  not  appear ;  the 
ideas  of  all  the  cardinals  at  that  time  were  merely  inchoate ; 
neither  body  had  resolved  to  cast  off  their  allegiance  to  their 
Pope.  There  is,  at  any  rate,  little  room  for  doubt  that  Baldas- 
sare Cossa,  Cardinal  Legate  of  Bologna,  was  the  author,  the 
originator,  and  the  guide  of  the  Council  of  Pisa  as  it  eventually 
appeared.^      From  the  time  at  which  he  took  part  in  their 

^  Mansi,  xxvi,  1170.        -  Hardt,  il.  351-4;  Ciaconius,  ii.  785;  Hoefler,  442. 


THE  WAY  OF  CONVENTION        287 

deliberations,  he  became  the  guiding  spirit.  Having  resolved 
that  there  should  be  a  council,  he  strained  every  nerve  on  its 
behalf. 

On  the  6th  June  1408  Baldassare  Cossa  made  a  league  with 
Florence  for  mutual  defence  against  King  Ladislas;  on  the 
26th  he  pulled  down  all  the  arms  of  Pope  Gregory  in  Bologna 
as  a  sign  of  neutrality  and  open  revolt ;  on  the  28th  he  got 
together  one  hundred  and  fifty  lances  to  aid  the  Florentines;  on 
the  8th  August  he  went  to  Pisa  accompanied  by  the  Cardinals  of 
Ravenna  and  Milan,  where  he  met  two  cardinals,  one  from 
Benedict's  obedience  and  one  from  that  of  Gregory.  They  had  a 
long  consultation  with  the  Florentines,  and  the  Legate  prevailed 
on  his  allies  to  allow  Pisa  to  become  the  scene  of  the  proposed 
council.  It  was  not  until  this  date,  the  23rd  August  1408, 
that  the  cardinals  were  able  to  send  out  their  invitations  to 
the  council.  These  were  ante-dated,  so  that  they  appeared 
to  have  been  issued  before  those  of  Popes  Benedict  and 
Gregory :  possibly  they  had  been  prepared  beforehand  and 
were  merely  awaiting  the  decision  of  the  Florentines  pending 
despatch.  This  action  of  the  Cardinal  Legate  was  gall  and 
wormwood  to  his  enemies,  Pope  Gregory  and  King  Ladislas ; 
but  the  cardinals  showed  their  confidence  in  him  by  creating 
Baldassare  Cossa  Vicar  of  the  Church  and  Prior  of  the 
Cardinals.^  The  '  way  of  convention '  having  failed,  the  'way 
of  a  council'  was  now  to  be  tried. 

The  Cardinals  of  Palestrina  and  Milan  were  sent  to  Siena  to 
invite  Pope  Gregory  :  they  were  obliged  to  post  the  invitation 
in  the  piazza  of  the  town.-  On  the  24th  September  the 
cardinals  despatched  their  invitation  to  Pope  Benedict.  They 
reminded  him  that  he  had  agreed  to  the  plan  of  a  council ; 
they  had  decided  that  he  and  Gregory  should  hold  a  council 
of  both  obediences  at  Pisa  on  Lady  Day  next,  and  that  the 
cardinals  should  issue  invitations ;  they  hoped  that  he  would 
help  and  take  part,  seeing  that  both  Popes  would  be  treated 
with  the  utmost  honour,  the  object  being  that  both  should 
appear  and  abdicate,  and  that  so  the  Church  should  again 
have  but  one  common  head.  Should  the  Popes  not  appear,  the 
council  would  be  guided  by  the  Holy  Ghost  in  procuring  an 
'  Tarlini,  ii.  586  ;  Mur.  xviii.  595.  -  Hefele,  vi.  917. 


288     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

end  to  the  Schism.  In  his  reply,  dated  7th  November, 
Benedict  censured  their  proceedings,  and  summoned  them  to 
attend  his  Council  of  Perpignan. 

As  soon  as  the  decision  of  the  united  colleges  became  known, 
there  arose  a  storm  of  discussion  as  to  the  canonicity  of  the 
proposed  council.  Through  it  all  the  cardinals  held  to  their 
proposal  to  hold  an  oecumenical  council  at  Pisa  on  Lady 
Day  1409. 


TWO  MINOR  COUNCILS  289 


CHAPTER   VIII 

TWO    MINOR    COUNCILS 

When  the  cardinals  of  both  obediences  took  upon  themselves 
the  responsibility  of  convoking  a  general  council,  the  Great 
Schism  entered  on  a  new  phase.  The  'way  of  fact'  had  been 
tried  and  had  failed  ;  the  '  way  of  cession '  had  been  tried  and 
had  failed  ;  the  '  way  of  convention '  had  been  tried  and  had 
failed ;  now  a  trial  was  to  be  made  of  the  '  way  of  a  council/ 
Both  Popes  had  promised  to  abdicate  under  certain  conditions, 
but  each  had  at  the  back  of  his  mind  the  notion  that  he 
personally  would  not  be  called  on  to  make  this  sacrifice.  This 
was  the  motive  which  led  Pope  Benedict  to  pursue  so  eagerly 
the  way  of  convention :  the  more  he  was  pressed  to  resign,  the 
more  determined  he  became  not  to  resign  until  he  had  met  his 
rival  face  to  face.  This  was  the  motive  which  led  Pope 
Gregory  to  refuse  to  bind  himself  to  the  way  of  cession  if  he 
found  some  other  way  equally  efficacious  for  ending  the 
Schism.  The  '  way  of  cession '  was  the  one  way  of  which  the 
outside  world  thought,  and  when  the  rival  Popes  hesitated  to 
adopt  it,  they  judged  them,  and  they  judged  them  harshly. 
In  the  case  of  neither  Pope,  however,  does  such  a  harsh  judg- 
ment seem  altogether  to  be  justified.  If  on  the  day  after  his 
coronation  Pope  Gregory  could  have  met  his  rival,  he  would 
undoubtedly  have  been  ready  to  abdicate;  but  Tern/pus  edax 
rerum.  Time  which  weakens  resolutions,  allowed  his  nephews 
to  get  the  upper  hand  of  the  weak  old  man,  and  made  him 
irresolute  and  worse.  Pope  Benedict  again  was  a  pious  and 
firm  man ;  had  his  lot  been  cast  in  untroubled  times,  he  would 
probably  have  been  a  Pope  after  the  order  of  Gregory  the 
Seventh  or  Innocent  the  Third ;  but  when  he  was  determined 
on  sa\nng  the  Church  by  the  one  way  in  which  no  one  else 


290     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

acquiesced,  his  firmness  degenerated  into  obstinacy,  and  he 
was  accused,  not  without  some  show  of  reason,  of  self-seeking 
and  perversity.  No  wonder,  then,  that  the  King  of  France 
called  out  on  the  two  old  men  who  could  not  find  a  single  spot 
in  the  whole  earth  on  which  to  meet  and  perform  their  manifest 
duty !  The  cardinals  judged  their  respective  Popes  with  equal 
severity.  Ever  since  the  royal  embassy  to  Avignon  the 
majority  of  Benedict's  cardinals  had  been  hostile  to  him  ;  ever 
since  the  days  of  their  terror  at  Lucca  the  majority  of 
Gregory's  cardinals  had  hated  and  distrusted  him.  When  the 
Popes  wrote  to  them,  they,  being  cardinals,  sent  a  courteous 
reply ;  but  in  reality  a  proposition  from  either  Pope  was  to 
them,  in  the  words  of  Milton,  a  '  mere  tankard  drollery,  a 
venereous  parjetory  for  stews.' 

The  resolution  of  the  cardinals  to  call  an  oecumenical  council 
was  received  with  general,  but  not  with  universal,  satisfaction. 
It  fortunately  received  a  certain  measure  of  that  support  from 
the  canon  lawyers  and  the  theologians  which  it  so  much  needed. 
Cardinal  Baldassare  Cossa  bestirred  himself  to  this  end.     From 
the  20th    December    1408    to    the    1st   January   1409,  three 
Faculties  of  the  University  of  Bologna,  the   canonical,    the 
juridical,  and  the  theological  faculties,  published  certain  'con- 
clusions' amply  justifying  the  action   of  the  cardinals.^     A 
Schism,  said  the  learned  doctors,  through  its  long  continuance, 
degenerates  into  heresy ;  if  the  Pope  neglects  to  put  an  end 
thereto,  the  faithful  may  withdraw  their  obedience  ;    and  if 
the  cardinals  in  their  turn  neglect  their  duty,  the  faithful  may 
call  a  council ;  and  if  the  Pope  unlawfully  fails  to  appear,  he 
is  to  be  held  as  a  schismatic  and  a  heretic  (tanquam  nutritori 
schismatis  et  haeresis  et  incorrigibili).     This  '  conclusion '  of  the 
University  served  as  the  legal  basis  for  subsequent  proceedings 
of  the  council.     The  theory  of  the  independent  action  of  the 
cardinals  had  indeed  been  ventilated  since  1407.^ 

Nowhere  was  the  plan  of  the  council  received  with  such  rejoic- 
ing as  in  France.  Both  court  and  University  were  delighted. 
From  the  day  when  the  news  was  first  brought  to  the  council 
engaged  in  tearing  up  the  Bull  of  Pope  Benedict,  com- 
munications passed  freely  between  Paris  and  the  cardinals ;  it 
'  Mansi,  xxvii.  21Q-22.  ^  Goeller,  29. 


TWO  MINOR  COUNCILS  291 

became  certain  that  the  council  would  be  held  under  French, 
under  Bur^rundian,  influence.^  On  the  12th  January  1409 
Charles  the  Sixth  announced  his  intention  of  inducing  all  the 
Kings  of  Christendom  to  declare  their  neutrality  between 
the  rival  Popes.  Even  those  who  would  ordinarily  have 
been  opposed  to  a  council  recognised  the  hopelessness  of 
their  position,  and  thought  only  of  opening  out  some  way  of 
retreat  for  the  Popes  whose  perverse  neglect  they  deplored.^ 

On  New  Year's  Day  1409,  Pierre  d'Ailly  preached  at  Aix  a 
sermon  which  reminds  us  of  those  of  his  youth.  The  Head  of 
the  Church  was  Christ,  and  the  Ciiurch  was  the  mystical  body 
of  Christ  To  the  Church  had  originally  belonged  the  right 
of  assembling  a  council;  where  two  or  three  are  gathered 
together  in  Chrisfs  name,  not  in  the  name  of  Peter,  there  is 
Christ  in  the  midst  of  them.  The  council  at  Jerusalem  was 
presided  over  not  by  Peter,  but  by  its  bishop  James.  After- 
wards the  right  of  convocation  was  limited  to  the  Pope,  for 
his  honour  and  the  confounding  of  heresy.  But  the  right  of 
the  Church  was  never  abrogated,  and  still  exists;  it  is  to  be 
exercised  not  necessarily  by  the  cardinals,  but  by  believers  who 
by  reason  of  their  authoritative  power  or  urgent  exhortation 
have  acquired  the  right  to  represent  those  who  work  for  the 
unity  of  the  Church.  This  was  a  doctrine  more  suited  to  the 
times  of  the  Reformation  than  to  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth 
century.  The  power  was  to  be  exercised  whenever  there  was  a 
vacancy,  whenever  the  Pope  was  mad  or  a  heretic,  whenever  he 
persistently  neglected  to  convoke  a  council,  or  whenever,  as  in 
the  present  instance,  there  were  two  or  more  pretenders  to  the 
papacy.  D'Ailly  spoke  not  a  word  of  censure  to  Benedict ;  he 
avoided  the  mention  of  his  name ;  he  did  not  condemn  either 
Pope.  He  even  went  so  far  as  to  send  his  views  to  the 
brothers  Ferrier,  the  staunchest  adherents  of  Pope  Benedict, 
whose  judgment  he  craved  ;  he  sent  them  also  to  five  French 
cardinals  supposed  to  be  friendly  to  the  same  Pope.^  He 
explained  in  a  sermon  at  Tarascon  on  the  10th  January  that, 
if  the  coming  council  was  rightly  convened,  then  both  Popes 
were  bound  to  recognise  it  and  were  bound  to  appear,  either 
personally  or  by  fully  empowered  proctors.  He  was  not  one 
'  Goeller,  31.  -  Tschackett,  147.  •''  Ibid.  148-51. 


292     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

of  those  who  wished  the  council  to  proceed  at  once  against 
both  Popes ;  he  rather  desired  that  they  should  be  induced  to 
resign.  In  case  both  proved  obstinate,  the  council  should 
proceed  to  a  new  election  only  if  it  was  satisfied  that  it  carried 
both  obediences  with  it ;  otherwise  it  would  but  create  a 
further  division,  and  the  last  state  of  the  Schism  would  be 
worse  than  the  first. 

These  political  sermons  were  at  that  time  one  of  the 
chief  means  of  influencing  and  of  educating  public  opinion. 
D'Ailly  was  followed  on  the  29th  January  by  Jean  Gerson's 
tractate  on  the  Unity  of  the  Church.  Gerson  combated 
the  positions  that  Popes  alone  could  summon  a  council,  and 
that  all  who  had  renounced  their  obedience  were  thereby 
excluded  from  it.^  His  arguments  were  based  on  Scripture 
and  common  sense;  and  he  and  D'Ailly  enjoyed  once  again 
the  pleasure  of  demonstrating  the  superiority  of  theology 
over  canon  law.  Their  arguments  showed  that  they  had 
broken  with  Benedict,  and  that  they,  the  most  moderate  and 
perspicuous  of  Parisian  doctors,  were  among  the  champions 
of  the  cause  of  the  council.  The  important  point  was  that 
the  theologians  of  Paris  were  at  one  with  the  canon  lawyers 
of  Bologna — or,  as  some  might  erroneously  have  said,  that 
Jean  sans  Peur  was  at  one  with  Baldassare  Cossa — on  the 
point  that  the  cardinals  could  legally  convoke  an  oecumenical 
council  without  the  authority  or  intervention  of  the  Pope. 

The  endeavours  of  the  King  of  France  meantime  to  obtain 
neutrality  through  Europe  had  met  with  wide  but  not  with 
complete  success.  In  Spain,  for  example,  while  the  Castilians 
subtracted  their  obedience,  the  Aragonese  stood  by  their 
countryman  ;  in  Italy,  whatever  Venice  and  Florence  might 
do,  Naples  and  Rimini  remained  loyal  to  Pope  Gregory. 
Three  monarchs,  above  all  others,  regarded  the  advent  of  the 
proposed  Great  Council  of  Pisa  with  marked  distrust  and  dis- 
content :  they  were  Rupert,  King  of  the  Romans ;  Ladislas, 
King  of  Naples  ;  and  Sigismund,  King  of  Hungary. 

When  the  rival  Popes  had  approached  within  fifty  miles  of 
each  other,  had  an  Emperor  with  the  decision  of  character 
even  of  Henry  the  Seventh  or  Charles  the  Fourth  appeared  on 

^  Schwab,  224. 


TWO  MINOR  COUNCII.S  293 

the  scene,  his  influence  would  have  sufficed  to  ensure  a  confer- 
ence of  the  Popes  and  a  settlement  of  the  Schism.  But 
Rupert  had  again  missed  his  opportunity ;  his  narrow,  logical 
mind,  regarding  Gregory  as  the  one  true  and  only  Pope, 
declined  to  countenance  any  dealings  with  Benedict ;  he  was 
unable  to  see  that  thirty  years  of  calamity  had  altered  the 
situation  ;  he  took  still  the  same  view  of  the  Schism  which 
had  been  correct  and  appropriate  at  its  commencement,  but 
he  was  insensible  and  impervious  to  the  arguments  of  Henry 
of  Langenstein,  of  Conrad  of  Gelnhausen,  of  Pierre  d'Ailly  and 
of  Jean  Gerson.  Dietrich  of  Niem  had  from  Lucca  addressed 
a  letter  to  Rupert  reproaching  him  with  his  inaction  ;  ^  it  was 
as  difficult  to  drag  King  Rupert  away  from  Heidelberg  and 
the  new  University  as  it  was  to  drag  King  Wenzel  away  from 
Bohemia.  Nor  would  the  three  Archbishops  of  the  Rhine 
leave  their  country  for  the  sake  of  the  Schism  ;  though  they 
had  each  double  the  revenue  of  the  King,  and  though,  had  it 
been  a  question  of  filling  one  of  their  own  sees,  they  would 
have  betaken  themselves  to  Rome  as  readily  as  the  three 
Kings  betook  themselves  to  the  feet  of  the  Child  Jesus.^ 
Dietrich  warned  him  that  Ladislas  was  already  a  candidate 
for  the  Empire,  but  Rupert  was  detained,  powerless  and  in- 
effective, in  his  own  country.  Ever  since  he  had  been  forced 
in  his  own  despite  to  confirm  the  proceedings  of  the  Diet  at 
Marbach,  the  King  had  been  losing  ground.  The  princely 
Bishop  of  Liege  got  himself  enfeoffed  by  Wenzel ;  the  im- 
perial cities  of  Rothenburg,  Regensburg,  Aix,  and  Toul  ac- 
knowledged him  as  still  King  of  the  Romans  ;  the  Dukes  of 
Austria,  even  Rupert's  old  ally  Leopold,  declared  for  Wenzel.^ 
Rupert  knew  that  the  party  of  neutrality,  fostered  by  Cardinal 
Baldassare  Cossa  and  led  by  the  Archbishop  John  of  Nassau, 
was  making  headway  through  Germany :  he  tried  to  stem  the 
swelling  current.  He  summoned  the  Electors  in  vain  to 
Bacharach  in  1408;  he  summoned  the  clergy  and  laity  to 
Nuernberg  on  the  21st  of  October,  but  no  decision  in  the 
interest  of  the  Church  was  taken.  Then  he  called  a  great 
Diet  at  Frankfurt  for  Epiphany  1409  to  decide  finally  on  the 
relation  of  Germany  to  the  Schism.  The  political  no  less 
'  Hoefler,  411.  -Ibid.  411.  ^  Aschbach,  i.  269-70. 


294     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

than  the  ecclesiastical  situation  was  in  question.  If  Rupert 
persisted  in  his  fidelity  to  Pope  Gregory  and  lost  his  own 
followers  thereby,  his  kingship  became  most  precarious ;  if,  to 
strengthen  his  hold  on  the  kingdom,  he  gave  up  the  Pope,  he 
belied  his  former  life  and  abandoned  the  Pope  who  had 
recognised  him  as  the  rightful  King  of  the  Romans.  It  was  a 
duel  between  the  King  and  the  Archbishop;  John  of  Nassau  re- 
membered how  a  hundred  years  earlier  an  Archbishop  of  Mainz 
had  raised  Adolf  to  the  throne  and  had  then  again  deposed 
him:  he  was  resolved  to  follow  the  example  of  his  predecessor. 

The  Diet  at  Frankfurt  was  attended  by  ambassadors  from 
the  courts  of  England  and  France,  by  King  Rupert  and  the 
Electors  of  Mainz  and  Cologne,  by  the  Duke  of  Brunswick, 
the  Landgraf  of  Hesse,  the  Markgraf  of  Meissen,  the  Burggraf 
of  Nuernberg,  and  by  a  large  number  of  bishops,  abbots,  and 
counts.  All  Europe  was  alive  to  its  importance.  From  Pisa 
came  the  Cardinal  of  Bari ;  from  Pope  Gregory  came  his 
nephew,  the  new  Cardinal  Antonio.  Robert  of  Franzola  rose 
first  in  the  Diet ;  he  formulated  the  views  of  the  Archbishop 
of  Mainz,  and  justified  the  action  of  the  cardinals  at  Pisa. 
Then  Cardinal  Antonio  rising  announced  that  his  uncle  had 
convoked  a  council  for  Whitsuntide  at  Udine,  that  Gregory 
was  anxious  that  the  King  of  the  Romans,  as  Protector  of  the 
Church,  should  take  the  matter  in  hand.  King  Rupert  him- 
self addressed  the  Diet.  He  pointed  out  that  the  action  of 
the  cardinals  at  Pisa  would  merely  increase  the  existing  con- 
fusion, that  it  would  create  a  triple  instead  of  a  double  Schism, 
and  that  the  safest  and  most  honoiu-able  course  both  for  the 
Church  and  the  Empire  would  be  to  accept  the  proposal  of 
Pope  Gregory.  To  his  mortification  lie  found  that  he  was 
unable  to  influence  the  Diet ;  the  majority  declared  for 
neutrality  between  the  rival  Popes.  The  Diet  broke  up. 
King  Rupert  and  Cardinal  Antonio  departed  for  Heidelberg. 
The  King  was  determined  to  recognise  no  other  Pope  than 
Gregory  unless  and  until  he  were  canonically  deposed. 

When  the  ambassador  of  Pope  Gregory  departed  with  King 
Rupert,  the  Cardinal  of  Bari,  the  representative  of  the  United 
College  at  Pisa,  went  off  to  the  court  of  Rupert^s  rival, 
King  Wenzel,  at  Prague.     Both  Wenzel  and  Sigismund  had 


TWO  MINOR  COUNCILS  295 

endeavoured  to  shake  Pope  Gregory  in  his  allegiance  to 
Rupert.  They  had  written  pointing  out  how  their  father 
Charles  the  Fourth  had  secured  the  allegiance  of  Germany  to 
the  Pope  at  Rome;  they  had  dwelt  on  the  unshaken  fidelity 
of  the  house  of  Luxemburg,  whereas  the  house  of  Bavaria 
had  already  driven  one  Pope  from  Rome.  Why  should  the 
Pope  prefer  to  Sigismund  that  King  who  had  bought  the 
Romans  and  caused  Pope  Innocent  to  flee  from  Rome,  that 
King  whose  father  had  besieged  Pope  Urban  in  Nocera  ?  Let 
Pope  Gregory  therefore  cancel  the  approbation  of  Rupert  and 
recognise  Wenzel  as  the  only  King  of  the  Romans.  Much  as 
Pope  Boniface  had  regretted  the  step  which  he  took  on  the  1st 
October  1403,  bitterly  as  his  successors  had  regretted  it,  still 
Gregory  felt  that  it  was  irrevocable,  that  he  was  bound  to  the 
weak  King  Rupert,  that  Wenzel  and  his  stalwart  half-brother 
must  necessarily  be  ranged  against  him.  He  declined  their 
proposal,  and  informed  King  Rupert.  Thereupon  Wenzel 
wrote  to  the  cardinals  at  Pisa ;  he  pointed  out  that  he  was 
the  rightful  King  of  the  Romans,  that  there  was  indeed  a 
Schism  in  the  Empire,  but  that  he  was  ready  to  do  his  best  to 
heal  the  more  important  Schism  in  the  Church.  All  that  he 
demanded  was  that  they  should  acknowledge  him  as  rightful 
King.     This  the  cardinals  were  quite  ready  to  do. 

But  although  Wenzel  had  himself  declared  for  neutrality, 
there  was  a  difficulty  in  bringing  round  the  Archbishop  and 
the  University  of  Prague  to  this  mind.  The  consequent 
necessity  for  action  hastened  an  important  change  in  the 
kingdom  and  in  the  seat  of  learning.  Charles  the  Fourth  had 
meant  Bohemia  to  be  the  corner-stone  of  the  Germano-Roman 
Empire ;  he  had  also  intended  the  University  of  Prague  to  be 
the  most  important  seat  of  learning  in  that  Empire.  But  the 
Bohemians  then  as  now  were  intensely  patriotic  ;  they  cared 
very  much  for  Bohemia,  and  very  little  for  the  rest  of  the 
Empire :  they  wanted  Bohemia  for  the  Bohemians.  In  the 
University  also  there  was  a  party  which  desired  the  supremacy 
of  theBoliemians.  This  institution  was  founded  on  the  model 
of  Paris  rather  than  of  Bologna.  It  was  divided  into  four 
nations,  the  Czechs,  the  Saxons,  the  Bavarians,  and  the  Poles; 
each  nation  had  an  equal  voice  in  the  government  of  afl'airs, 


296     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

and  as  three  nations  of  the  four  were  practically  Germans,  the 
Teutons  outvoted  the  Bohemians  by  three  to  one.  This  the 
patriots  resented.  With  John  Hus,  the  Queen''s  confessor,  at 
their  head,  they  pointed  out  to  King  Wenzel  that  it  was 
unfair  that  the  children  of  the  soil  should  be  at  the  mercy  of 
the  foreigner  with  no  right  of  habitation,  that  the  University 
of  Prague  had  been  modelled  on  that  of  Paris,  in  which  the 
French  were  the  predominant  factor,  as  the  Bohemians  should 
be  in  Bohemia.  They  forgot  to  mention  that  the  Czechs  had 
been  favoured  at  the  expense  of  the  other  nations  in  1384 ; 
they  failed  to  remind  Wenzel  that  he  had  pledged  his  kingly 
word  in  1399  to  aid  the  other  nations  ;  they  omitted  to  state 
that  the  Teuton  students  at  the  University  outnumbered  the 
Czechs  by  ten  to  one.  There  were  indeed  four  nations  in  the 
Faculty  of  Arts  at  Paris,  as  there  were  four  nations  in  the 
University  of  Prague  :  they  were  the  French,  the  Normans,  the 
Picards,  and  the  English ;  but  the  Picards  included  those 
from  the  Low  Countries,  the  English  included  the  Germans, 
and  the  French  included  all  the  Latin  races ;  and  although 
the  French  nation  had  come  to  outnumber  the  others,  they 
were  originally  more  nearly  equal. ^  What  was  more  important 
than  all  else,  however,  in  the  eyes  of  King  Wenzel,  was  that 
the  three  Teutonic  nations  were  true  to  Pope  Gregory,  while 
the  Bohemians  were  in  favour  of  neutrality.  The  ambassadors 
from  the  French  court  and  from  the  University  of  Paris  came 
to  the  aid  of  the  Bohemian  patriots  by  representing  that  the 
three  votes  of  the  nations  did  not  rest  on  statute  but  on 
custom.  Wenzel  determined  to  '  free  '  the  Bohemian  nation  ; 
like  the  patriots,  he  was  of  opinion  that  the  Bohemians  should 
have  lordship  over  the  Germans.  On  the  18th  January  1409 
he  altered  the  constitution  of  the  University,  and  decreed  that 
in  future  the  Bohemian  nation  should  have  three  votes  and 
the  other  three  nations  one  vote  between  them.^  The  King  had 
the  Patriarch  of  Aquileia  on  his  side  ;  he  now  had  three  votes 
out  of  four  in  the  University  ;  on  the  22nd  January,  therefore, 
the  Declaration  of  Neutrality  was  made.  The  Teuton  students 
represented  to  Wenzel  that  he  had  been  misinformed  and 
misled,  but  their  efforts  were  in  vain.  In  disgust  they  quitted 
^  Rashdall,  i.  320.  ^  Palacky,  iii.  232. 


TWO  MINOR  COUNCILS  297 

Prague,  two  thousand  of  them  in  a  single  dav,  and  three 
thousand  more  soon  afterwards,^  and  migrated  to  Leipsic  and 
elsewhere.  Thus  the  University  of  Prague  lost  its  command 
and  position,  as  tlie  kingdom  of  Bohemia  had  already  lost  hers  ; 
but  Wenzel  and  the  Patriots  rejoiced.  Bohemia  was  pledged 
to  neutrality  ;  it  followed  the  lead  of  the  cardinals  at  Pisa. 

Still  more  hostile  to  the  Council  of  Pisa  than  King  Rupert 
was  his  rival  for  the  Empire,  King  Ladislas  of  Naples  :  he  was 
determined  that  there  should  be  no  council  if  he  could  help 
it.  He  alone  of  all  the  monarchs  of  Europe,  he  who  had  taken 
for  his  device  Jut  Casar  mit  nihil,  had  no  desire  as  Csesar  to 
terminate  the  Schism  ;  he  preferred  that  there  should  be  two 
Popes,  one  at  Avignon  and  one  at  Rome;  and  just  as  the 
King  of  France  was  the  natural  protector,  guide,  and  director 
of  the  Pope  at  Avignon,  so  was  Ladislas  determined,  with  his 
kingdom  firmly  established  over  Central  and  Southern  Italy,  to 
be  the  lord  and  master  of  the  Pope  at  Rome.  If  the  Great 
Schism  were  terminated  and  there  were  but  a  single  Pope  in 
Christendom,  if  there  were  but  a  single  Pope  in  Italy,  that 
Pope  would  naturally  seek  to  strengthen  his  position  in  Italy, 
and  the  dominion  of  Ladislas  over  the  centre  and  south  of  the 
peninsula  would  be  fatally  endangered.  There  must  be  two 
Popes  in  Christendom  for  him  to  be  master  of  the  Pope  at 
Rome.^  Therefore  all  thought  of  union  of  the  Church  was 
hateful  to  him  ;  the  eagerness  of  Pope  Gregory  for  the  termina- 
tion of  the  Schism  was  detestable.  He  won  over  the  Pope's 
confessor,  getting  the  Pope  to  make  the  Dominican  Giovanni 
Bishop  of  Gaeta.^  As  soon  as  he  heard  of  the  Treaty  of  Mar- 
seilles, he  had  sent  the  sweet-toothed  old  Pope  a  valuable  present 
of  table-service,*  which  was  joyfully  received.  Ladislas  knew 
that  France  was  bent  on  ending  the  Schism ;  he  knew  that 
their  allegiance  sat  lightly  on  the  cardinals  of  Benedict,  who 
had  already  once  been  seduced  from  their  allegiance  ;  he  fore- 
saw that  if  only  the  cardinals  of  Gregory  were  won  over  to 
unite  with  those  of  Benedict,  then  French  influence  would  be 
supreme  not  only  in  the  coming  council  but  also  in  the  choice 
of  the  new  pontiff.     Ladislas  was  as  clear  on  this  point  as  was 

'  Pii  Papae  ii.,  Opera,  103.  ^  Brieger,  ix.  258. 

'  Brieger,  ix.  260.  *  De  Schismate,  230. 


298     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

Sigismund  of  Hungary.  He  knew  that  any  Pope  whom  the 
cardinals  might  elect  would  be  hostile  to  him,  and  would  be 
friendly  to  his  rival,  the  Duke  of  Anjou.  He  was  fighting  for 
the  kingdom  of  Naples  which  he  claimed  to  inherit  from 
Charles  the  First  of  Anjou.  For  him  the  fight  against  the 
council  must  be  a  fight  to  the  death. 

The  King  of  Naples  tried  in  the  first  place  to  prevent  Gregory 
from  leaving  Rome  by  aiding  and  abetting,  though  he  refrained 
from  personally  appearing  in,  the  rising  of  Nicolo  and  Giovanni 
Colonna  on  the  night  of  the  17th  June  1407.  That  attempt  was 
as  already  narrated  defeated  by  the  proximity  and  the  watch- 
fulness of  Paolo  Orsini.  It  wellnigh  proved  fatal  to  the  hopes 
of  Ladislas,  for  not  only  did  the  Romans  call  out  '  Death  to 
the  traitor  King  and  all  his  people,'  but  Paolo  Orsini  himself 
had  entered  into  a  plot  to  deliver  Rome  to  the  Patriarch, 
Simon  de  Cramaud — a  plot  which  was  only  defeated  by  dis- 
trust of  the  condottiere  and  by  the  French  hopes  fixed  on 
Gregory.^  The  Pope  himself  reproached  Ladislas,  charging 
him  with  working  against  the  union  of  the  Church,  and  re- 
minding him  of  all  that  Naples  owed  to  the  Popes.  The  red- 
haired  libertine,  being  now  Protector  of  the  Church,  could  not 
sit  still  under  this  rebuke  ;  he  answered  ironically  that  he 
owed  more  to  his  own  exertion  than  to  any  help  from  Pope 
Boniface,  that  he  had  taken  Ludovico  de'  Megliorati  into  his 
pay  to  prevent  him  from  doing  harm  to  the  Pope,  that  he  was 
ready  to  do  all  that  in  him  lay  to  heal  the  Schism.  At  the 
same  time,  he  had  not  been  excommunicated,  his  kingdom 
had  not  been  placed  under  an  interdict,  and  the  term  for 
the  meeting  of  the  two  Popes  at  Savona  had  passed 
by.  So  far  Ladislas  had  won  his  object.  In  December  he 
repeated  his  assurance  to  Gregory.  The  austere  Dominican 
confessor  also,  after  his  fruitless  embassies  to  Genoa  and  Venice, 
returned  to  Siena  and  backed  up  his  brethren,  the  mendicant 
friars,  in  their  representations  of  the  dangers  which  would 
have  surrounded  Pope  Gregory  had  he  ventured  to  Savona. 
He  was  rewarded  for  his  treachery  to  his  early  principles 
and  to  his  zeal  for  the  union  by  the  wealthy  Archbishop  of 
Ragusa :  he  was  soon  to  be  a  cardinal. 

Everything  up  to  this  point  had  favoured  the  schemes  of  the 

^  Brieger,  ix.  266. 


TWO  MINOR  COUNCILS  299 

King  of  Naples.  He  got  ready  his  forces  by  land  and  by 
sea,  being  determined  to  checkmate  the  French  if  possible. 
He  liad  failed  to  prevent  the  Pope's  departure,  but  Rome 
itself  was  soon  in  an  uproar,  Gregory  had  left  behind  him 
in  the  city  Cardinal  Petrus  Stefaneschi  as  Vicar  General,  and 
Paolo  Orsini  in  command  of  the  troops.  They  fortified 
the  approaches  to  the  city,  called  out  the  citizens  in 
its  defence,  and  increased  the  number  of  the  paid  soldiery. 
The  taxes  being  insufficient,  contributions  were  levied  from 
laymen  and  clergy.  These  measures,  the  excesses  of  the 
troops,  and  the  scarcity  of  provisions,  speedily  reduced  Rome 
to  a  state  of  seething  discontent.  The  King's  work  proved 
easy.  The  story  has  been  already  told.  The  Cardinal  took 
to  flight.  Paolo  Orsini  and  his  troops,  whom  Boucicaut  was 
expecting  to  co-operate  with  him  against  Ladislas,  entered 
the  service  of  the  King  of  Naples.  On  the  25th  April  1408, 
amid  the  joyous  shouts  of  the  fickle  populace  and  the  plentiful 
waving  of  palms,  Ladislas  entered  Rome  under  a  baldachino 
held  aloft  by  eight  barons.  He  had  anticipated  the  attempt 
of  Benedict,  and  Gregory  might  at  least  rejoice  that  the  city 
was  not  held  by  his  rival,  but  by  a  King  who  had  sworn 
fidelity  to  him,  and  who  had  assured  him  his  protection. 

The  King  did  not  tarry  in  Rome.  The  ruling  party  in  Perugia 
were  waiting  to  make  over  to  him  their  city ;  Pope  Gregory 
and  his  cardinals  were  in  the  power  of  his  friend  and  ally 
Paolo  Guinigi.  Ladislas  pushed  his  troops  up  through  Umbria 
to  the  borders  of  Tuscany.  The  papal  courtiers  had  mean- 
time urged  on  Gregory  the  creation  of  new  cardinals,  trying 
unsuccessfully  to  get  Paolo  Guinigi  on  their  side  by  promising 
a  hat  to  his  relative,  the  Bishop  of  Lucca.  Paolo  Guinigi, 
however,  was  not  ready  for  the  sake  of  a  relative  to  see  the 
union  of  the  Church  sacrificed ;  he  sympathised  with  the 
cardinals,  though  the  latter  were  by  no  means  unanimous  as 
to  the  means  to  be  adopted.  He  cautioned  the  Pope  against 
the  use  of  harsh  measures  to  the  cardinals,  who  in  their  turn 
resolved  not  to  recognise  any  new  creations.  The  straight- 
forward conduct  of  his  friend  Paolo  Guinigi,  and  the  secession 
of  Gregory's  cardinals,  were  a  blow  to  Ladislas,  who  had 
reckoned  on  one  Pope  going  to  Leghorn  and  the  other  to 
Pisa,  and  who,  on  the  3rd  May,  had  written  to  the  Florentines 


300     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

that  he  meant  to  send  his  galleys  to  the  former  place  and  to 
go  himself  to  the  latter,  both  as  Protector  of  the  Holy  Roman 
Church  and  to  secure  his  own  interest  as  King  of  Naples.^ 
On  the  13th  May  he  sent  an  embassy  to  the  Pope,  accompanied 
by  one  from  Rome;  and  on  the  21st  Gregory  issued  an  en- 
cyclical showing  that  he  was  on  terms  of  complete  understand- 
ing with  Ladislas  as  to  his  occupation  of  Rome;  indeed, 
shortly  afterwards  he  made  over  to  the  King  the  Vicariate  of 
Rome  and  of  other  parts  of  the  Papal  States  for  a  considera- 
tion. The  Pope  with  his  new  cardinals  and  the  King  with  his 
army  were  now  in  open  war  against  the  union  of  the  Church. 

The  Florentines  were  unfeignedly  anxious  for  the  termina- 
tion of  the  Schism  ;  its  continuance  injured  them  not  only  as 
believers,  but  also  as  men  of  commerce  in  their  dealings  with 
those  of  the  opposite  obedience.  They  had,  on  the  23rd  March 
1408,  expressed  to  the  ambassadors  of  Gregory  their  belief 
that  the  rival  Popes  were  in  collusion,  and  thought  of  nothing 
less  than  the  welfare  of  the  Church  ;  the  Venetian  ambassa- 
dors, returning  to  Venice  through  Florence,  said  the  same 
thing,  and  laid  the  whole  blame  on  the  new  Cardinal 
Giovanni  Domenici.^  The  Florentines  were  consequently  ready 
for  a  declaration  of  neutrality.  They  had  been  anxious  that 
the  Popes  should  meet,  if  possible,  and  that  they  should  meet 
at  Pisa ;  they  repeatedly  urged  Gregory  to  hasten  his  coming ; 
they  promised  full  security  to  Benedict.  But  it  was  in  vain. 
In  May  they  gave  up  all  hope  of  a  conference  between  the 
rival  pontiffs.  Gino  Capponi,  a  Florentine,  went  to  Lucca, 
took  counsel  with  the  cardinals,  and  was  an  accessory  to  their 
desertion  of  Pope  Gregory.^  Having  gone  thus  far,  Florence 
could  not  rest  there.  She  was  anxious  to  keep  on  good  terms 
with  France,  but  was  as  jealous  of  French  influence  in  Italy 
and  in  the  settlement  of  the  Schism  as  she  was  of  the  designs 
of  Ladislas  in  oversetting  the  equilibrium  of  the  Italian  States. 
She  knew  that  France  was  ready  to  interfere  ;  she  foresaw 
that  if  the  coming  council  of  the  cardinals  were  to  be  held  on 
French  territory,  if  it  were  held  in  Genoa,  then  it  would 
result  in  the  election  of  a  French  Pope,  and  the  evil  days 
of  the  Captivity    would    return  ;   that  the    French   influence 

^  Brieger,  x.  367.  ^  Ammirato,  iv.  407.  *  Raumer,  201. 


TWO  MINOR  COUNCILS  301 

would  become  predominant  in  Western  Europe,  that  there 
could  be  no  settlement  of  tiie  Schism  agreeable  to  Italy, 
to  Germany,  and  to  the  northern  nations.  Not  being  strong 
enough  to  act  alone,  she  entered  into  a  league  with  Baldassare 
Cossa,  the  powerful  Cardinal  Legate  of  Bologna.  The  treaty 
against  peoples,  lords,  and  princes  of  every  rank,  even  Pope, 
Kaiser,  or  King,  was  concluded  on  the  30th  May  1408.  Still 
the  republic  desired  nothing  less  than  war.  She  sent  Luigi 
Pitti  on  the  19th  May  to  Lucca  to  announce  to  the  Pope  the 
grief  with  which  she  had  learned  of  the  flight  of  the  cardinals, 
to  entreat  him  to  take  no  harsh  measures  against  them,  to 
assure  him  of  her  filial  devotion  and  desire  to  render  every 
assistance  in  the  establishment  of  the  union  of  the  Church. 
To  the  French  ambassadors  who  desired  to  know  whether 
Florence  would  declare  for  neutrality,  she  returned  an  evasive 
answer,  which  thev  interpreted  in  a  satisfactory  sense.  Such 
was  the  state  of  affairs  in  Florence  when  King  Ladislas 
appeared  with  his  army  on  their  frontier,  announcing  his 
intention  to  be  present  at  any  council  which  might  be  held. 

A  decisive,  straightforward  answer  would  have  brought  the 
King  and  his  army  on  Florence.  A  temporising  reply  was 
necessary.  A  defensive  league  was  offered  :  what  the  King 
wanted  was  an  alliance  against  the  Duke  of  Anjou.  Plorence 
would  not  do  anything  which  might  bring  her  into  conflict 
with  the  cardinals  and  with  France.  Ladislas  declined  their 
offer.  The  negotiations  had  served  their  purpose  :  they  had 
gained  time  ;  troops  had  been  pushed  forward,  and  the  Floren- 
tine territories  were  protected.  In  the  beginning  of  June  the 
King's  ambassador,  Cristiano  Carraciolo,  asked  for  permission 
to  bring  four  or  five  hundred  lances  through  Tuscany  to  con- 
duct the  Pope  in  safety  from  Lucca  :  this  was  also  refused  : 
the  republic  would  not  allow  foreign  troops  on  her  territory 
in  han-est  time  ;  she  herself  would  provide  for  the  Pope's  safe 
escort.  Ladislas  saw  that  Florence  was  determined  ;  he  pro- 
tested against  their  interference  with  his  duty  as  Protector  of 
the  Church  ;  he  would  wait  for  ten  days,  and  if  the  Pope  quitted 
Lucca  within  that  time  and  did  not  need  his  protection,  he 
would  be  content.  Florence  sent  two  envoys  to  Gregory, 
promising  him  an  escort  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  lances,  and 


302     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

urging  him  to  write  to  the  King  that  he  did  not  require  his 
help.  They  told  him  that  the  King  would  only  wait  a  fixed 
time.  The  aged  Pope  was  full  of  fears  for  his  personal  safety ; 
the  envoys  were  full  of  protestations  and  promises.  Finally, 
on  the  14th  July,  as  already  narrated,  Gregory  left  Lucca,  and 
on  the  19th  he  reached  Siena.  The  Florentines  breathed 
afresh ;  Ladislas,  with  that  lack  of  energy  and  determination 
characteristic  of  his  ambitious  but  weak  nature,  abandoned  his 
enterprise,  returned  to  Rome,  and  on  the  25th  of  July  left  that 
city  to  brawl  and  wanton  the  summer  through  at  Naples.^ 

Although  she  had  granted  safe-conducts  to  the  cardinals  of 
Benedict,  Florence  had  not  as  yet  definitely  withdrawn  from 
the  obedience  of  Gregory.  The  cardinals  had  already  deter- 
mined on  the  25th  March  1409  as  the  date  for  their  proposed 
council,  and  on  the  4th  August  1408  Florence  gave  them  per- 
mission to  choose  any  place  in  her  territories  for  its  meeting.- 
The  Cardinals  Baldassare  Cossa  and  Petrus  Filargi  now 
appeared  on  the  scene.  Cossa  had  already,  by  means  of  the 
Bolognese  jurists  Butrio  and  Anchorano,  won  over  the  majority 
of  the  influential  men  of  Florence  to  agree  to  a  council  being 
held.  On  the  23rd  August,  at  the  Franciscan  cloister,  Pisa  was 
decided  upon  as  the  place  of  the  council ;  and  on  the  13th  Sep- 
tember a  formal  contract  with  this  object  was  made  with  the 
Chancellor  of  the  republic,  Petrus  Ser  Mini.  The  council  was 
to  be  held  within  the  next  eighteen  months,  and  the  cardinals 
were  exhorted  to  settle  the  dispute  as  to  the  crown  of  Naples. 
On  the  28th  August  the  republic  sent  the  Franciscans,  Antonio 
and  Stefano  Buonacorsi,  to  Siena  to  inform  Pope  Gregory  of 
their  proceedings  and  to  invite  him  to  the  council.^  His 
answer  was  what  might  have  been  expected. 

On  the  30th  September  1408,  King  Ladislas  sent  to  Rome 
his  trusted  general,  the  Count  of  Troja,  whotook  up  his  abode 
in  the  Palace  of  Saint  Apollinaris,  Three  days  later,  Pope 
Gregory's  nephew,  Paolo  Corrario,  came  to  Rome,  was  magnifi- 
cently received,  stayed  tiie  night  there,  and  passed  on  his  way 
to  Naples,  where  he  remained  for  three  weeks  in  conference 
with  the  irresolute  King.  Ladislas  wanted  to  get  the  Pope 
to  move  from  Siena  to  Perugia,  which  was  under  his  sway,  but 
'  Raumer,  208.  ^  Mansi,  xxvii.  445-6.  ^  Ibid,  xxvii.  489  et  seq. 


TWO  MINOR  COUNCILS  303 

Carlo  Malatesta  induced  the  aged  pontiff"  to  go  rather  to 
Rimini,  where  he  remained  from  the  3rd  November  to  the 
16th  May  1409. 

Gregory  had  originally  intended  to  visit  Bologna  on  his 
way  to  Rome ;  he  had  given  the  lordship  of  that  city, 
where  Baldassare  Cossa  was  still  in  secure  possession,  and 
the  lordship  also  of  Forli,  Faenza,  and  other  Church  lands 
to  Ladislas  in  return  for  twenty  thousand  florins ;  and  he 
had  bestowed  the  Vicariate  of  Forli  and  Faenza  on  his  own 
nephews.  Carlo  Malatesta,  however,  warned  him  against 
putting  himself  in  the  power  of  the  ambitious  and  masterful 
Legate,  who  was  suspected,  utterly  without  reason,  of  having 
caused  the  death  of  Pope  Innocent,  and  who  had  publicly 
pulled  down  the  insignia  of  Pope  Gregory  from  the  city. 
Gregory  had  therefore  changed  his  route,  and  when  he 
reached  Siena  he  in  September  1408  issued  a  Bull  against 
Baldassare  Cossa,  recounting  all  his  iniquities,  depriving  him 
of  the  Legation  of  Bologna,  and  declaring  him  to  be  an  enemy 
and  a  rebel  against  the  Pope.  The  Legate  simply  laughed  at 
the  Bull,  which  he  burned  in  the  market-place.  Pope  Gregory 
had  scorned  his  overtures  ;  the  cardinal  had  thrown  off  his 
allegiance,  and  was  now  the  recognised  head  of  the  conciliar 
party.  On  the  14th  December,  after  he  had  reached  Rimini, 
Pope  Gregory  again  invited  his  recalcitrant  cardinals  back, 
promising  them  full  and  free  forgiveness  if  they  returned  ;  at 
the  same  time,  he  recounted  all  their  backsliding,  and  was 
especially  severe  on  that  '  child  of  iniquity  and  son  of  perdi- 
tion,' Baldassare  Cossa,  who  had  abused  his  position  as  Legate 
of  Bologna,  who  had  aforetime  maligned  the  Pope  as  perjured 
and  schismatic,  and  who  had  led  astray  the  other  cardinals, 
as  well  as  many  prelates,  cities,  and  private  persons.  Many 
other  detailed  charges  the  Pope  brought  against  his  enemy, 
Baldassare  Cossa ;  but  neither  Legate  nor  cardinals  paid  any 
attention  to  his  words.  Gregory  excommunicated  them  all 
on  the  14th  January.^ 

At  Florence  in  January  1409  a  provincial  council  was  held, 
which  was  attended  by  the  clergy  from  the  Archbishop  down- 
wards, by  tiie  Franciscan  and  Carmelite  Friars,  as  well  as  by 
^  Hefele,  vi.  634. 


304     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

the  Priors  of  the  Crafts  and  the  Bannerets  of  the  City.     The 
object  of  the  meeting  was  to  decide  on  the  formal  subtraction 
of  obedience.     Pope  Gregory  was  informed  that  the  obedience 
of  the  republic  would  be  withdrawn  from  him  on  the  26th 
March  unless  he  on  or  before  that  date  came  to  Pisa  to  attend 
the  council.     The  Pope  declined.     Obedience  was  withdrawn. 
Florence  had  still  King  Ladislas  to  reckon  with.     He  would 
wreck  the  council  if  he  could  ;  he  had  already  in  the  strongest 
terms  forbidden  the  publication  of  the  Bull  for  its  convoca- 
tion in  the  kingdom  of  Naples.     With  the  new  year  (1409)  the 
King  roused  himself  into  activity  again.     He  despatched  an 
ambassador,  GufFredo,  to  the  cardinals  at  Pisa,  complaining 
that  in  their  anxiety  to  obtain  the  adhesion   of  his   rival, 
Sigismund  of  Hungary,  they  had  promised  him  to  take  from 
Ladislas  his  rights  in  Naples  if  Sigismund  would  only  acknow- 
ledge the  Council ;  they  had  moreover  treated  him  disrespect- 
fully, calling  him  simply  Ladislas  of  Durazzo :  his  real  title 
was  '  Our  most  serene  and  unconquered  Lord  Ladislas  by  the 
grace  of  God  most  illustrious  King  of  Hungary,  Sicily  and 
Jerusalem,  Dalmatia,  Croatia,  Rome,  Servia,  Galicia,  Kumania, 
Bulgaria,  etc..  Count  of  Provence,  Piedmont,  etc.'^     This  was 
the  King's  title,  and  he   expected   to   be  called  accordingly. 
The  Florentines  knew  that  the  embassy  was  directed  against 
them  as  much  as  against  the  cardinals,  and  were  anxious  to 
pacify  the  King:  they  called  on  the  cardinals  to  justify  them- 
selves and  to  assure  the  King  that  they  would  recognise  his 
title.2   Ladislas,  however,  was  in  earnest.   He  assembled  an  army 
of  ten  thousand  cavaliers  and  a  large  body  of  foot-soldiers ; 
his  ships  of  war  were  in  the  harbours,  and  his  supplies  were 
in  readiness.     Pope  Gregory  had  assigned  to  him  the  States 
of  the  Church.     The  King  meant  to   make  himself  master, 
if  possible,  of  his  new  possessions.     He  announced  his  inten- 
tion of  marching  against  Siena,  and  of  besieging  Baldassare 
Cossa  in  Bologna ;  he  sent  the  Constable  Alberigo  da  Barbiano 
northward  with  forces.     The  Florentines  came  to  the  aid  of 
their  ally ;  they  reinforced  their  castles,  they  encouraged  the 
Sienese;    they    took  troops   into   their   pay,   and    appointed 
Malatesta  de  Pandolfo  de'  Malatesti  their  commandant.     The 
1  De  Schismate,  287.  ^  Mansi,  xxvii.  492. 


TWO  MINOR  COUNCILS  305 

warlike  Legate  marched  with  all  his  men  against  the  Con- 
stable, who,  after  parleying  with  Malatesta,  took  his  departure. 
Then  Ottobuon  Terzo,  with  more  Neapolitan  troops,  appeared, 
but  was  held  at  bay  by  the  combined  forces  of  the  Legate, 
Malatesta,  and  the  Marquess  of  Ferrara.^  The  weather  this 
year  was  mild,  clear,  and  fine  up  to  the  beginning  of  March, 
so  that  the  violets,  the  almond-trees,  the  plums,  and  the 
peaches  blossomed,  the  vines  put  forth  their  clusters,  and  all 
the  trees  came  into  leaf;  then  it  turned  bitterly  cold  beyond 
all  knowledge,  and  provisions  became  excessively  dear. 

On  the  12th  March  Ladislas  arrived  from  Naples  at  Rome, 
and  stayed  there  in  the  Pope's  palace  until  the  2nd  April, 
ready  for  war.     On  his  banners  were  inscribed  the  lines — 

'  I  am  a  poor  King,  a  friend  of  freebooters, 
A  lover  of  the  people,  and  a  destroyer  of  tyrants.'* 

The  King  set  himself  forth  as  a  protector  of  the  disinherited 
and  a  herald  of  freedom.     This  was  his  new  role. 

Ladislas  set  out  toward  Siena.  The  Florentines  sent  am- 
bassadors to  him  ;  he  denied  that  he  had  ever  promised  not 
to  interfere  in  the  affairs  of  Tuscany,  and  promised  to  send  an 
embassy  to  Florence.  His  ambassadors  came ;  they  com- 
plained of  the  Florentines  for  their  dealings  with  Perugia,  for 
their  league  with  Baldassare  Cossa,  the  King's  enemy,  who 
had  robbed  the  King's  trusted  man,  Alberigo  da  Barbiano, 
of  his  lands,  and  for  their  taking  the  Castle  of  Monte  Carlo 
from  the  Lord  of  Lucca.  But  the  head  and  front  of  the 
Florentines'  offending  was  that  they  had  given  Pisa  to  the 
cardinals  for  the  election  of  a  new  Pope,  whereas  Gregory, 
a  holy  man.  was  the  only  true  Pope  and  only  person  who 
could  canonically  convoke  a  council.  The  Florentines  excused 
themselves  as  best  they  could  :  they  were  pledged  to  a  council ; 
this  would  bring,  as  they  knew,  the  election  of  a  new  Pope ; 
thev  were  anxious  to  avoid  the  interference  of  France  in  the 
kingdom  of  Naples.  The  ambassadors  asked  them  to  make 
a  league  with  Ladislas  for  mutual  defence.  But  the  shifty 
King  was  not  a  man  on  whom  the  Republic  could  depend. 

*  Mur.  xviii.  595-6.  *  //'»«'•  xxiv.  999. 


306     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

The  Florentines  refused  the  proffered  league ;  they  could  not 
break  their  alliance  with  the  men  of  Siena  and  the  Legate  of 
Boloo-na  whose  envoys  were  present :  the  Sienese  gave  the 
like  answer.  The  ambassadors  were  forced  to  return  with  this 
unsatisfactory  message  to  their  King,  who  was  very  wroth, 
and  who  threatened  soon  to  make  the  Florentines  sing  a 
different  tune.  Ladislas  then  moved  on  to  Siena,  remained 
there  a  few  days  plundering  and  ravaging,  but  was  obliged 
to  shift  his  quarters  for  want  of  provisions.  On  the  1st  May 
he  entered  the  Florentine  territory,  and  on  the  3rd  pitched  his 
camp  at  Olmo,  near  Arezzo,  where  he  wrought  great  damage. 
He  was  unable  to  take  any  of  the  high-lying  cities,  but  he 
wasted  the  country  around.  On  the  16th  April,  Baldassare 
Cossa  sent  troops  under  Malatesta  to  the  aid  of  the  Floren- 
tines:  the  joint  forces  marched  to  Arezzo  and  offered  battle 
to  the  King,  but  Ladislas  avoided  anything  like  an  en- 
counter ;  he  marched  off  to  Castiglione  and  thence  to  Cortona, 
plundering  and  spoiling  the  crops,  the  vines,  and  the  fruit- 
trees,  ravaging  the  dominions  which  the  Pope  had  assigned  to 
him.  He  did  more  damage  than  any  man  before  him,  where- 
fore the  peasants  called  him  in  derision  'King  Waste-crop.'^ 

Baldassare  Cossa,  on  the  other  hand,  was  completely  success- 
ful.    On  the  7th  May  he  marched  with  a  mighty  array  of 
bombards,  mangonels,  catapults,  and  the  like  instruments  of 
war  against  the   Constable   Alberigo  da  Barbiano,  defeated 
him   on  the   16th,  chased   him   out  of  Romagna,  and  took 
several    strong    places  ;    while    two    days    later    his   general, 
Sforza,  put  a  finishing  touch  to  the  good  work  by  surprising 
and    killing    the    King's    other    general,    Ottobuon    Terzo.^ 
While  eminent  ecclesiastics  from  all  countries  of  Europe  were 
assembling  at  Pisa,  the  work  of  defending  Tuscany  and  the 
Council  against    King  Ladislas,  of  rendering  it  possible  to 
hold  a  Council  at  all,  fell  almost  entirely  under  the  guidance 
of  the  Papal   Legate  of  Bologna,   '  the   vigorous   ruler,  the 
intelligent  statesman,  the  successful  general';^  and  this  ex- 
plains why  he,  a  Cardinal  of  the  Church,  could  take  no  part 
in  the  earlier  proceedings  of  the  Council  of  Pisa.     At  Cortona 
Ladislas  tried  to  win  over  the  Lord  of  the  city  by  bribery ; 
1  Tartini,  ii.  597-602,  -  Mur,  xviii.  597,  ^  Raumer,  187. 


TWO  MINOR  COUNCILS  307 

he  was  unsuccessful,  but  certain  of  the  citizens  themselves 
turned  traitors.  On  the  3rd  June  the  Neapolitan  general, 
the  Count  of  Troja,  was  admitted  into  the  city,  the  Lord 
of  Cortona  was  bound  hand  and  foot  and  sent  off  to  Naples ; 
while  the  French  ambassador,  who  was  also  captured,  was 
held  to  ransom.  The  Venetians  then  unsuccessfully  attempted 
to  make  peace  between  Florence  and  Ladislas ;  and  the  King, 
leaving  troops  in  Perugia,  Cortona,  and  other  places,  returned 
to  Naples.  His  attempt  to  baulk  the  Council  of  Pisa  had 
been  frustrated  mainly  through  the  energy  and  military 
resource  of  Baldassare  Cossa,  Papal  Legate  of  Bologna. 

Not  less  opposed  to  the  Council  than  Rupert  and  Ladislas 
was  King  Sigismund  of  Hungary.  From  the  time  when  Pope 
Boniface  the  Ninth  had  countenanced  the  invasion  of  his 
kingdom  by  Ladislas  of  Naples,  Sigismund  had  broken  off 
relations  with  the  court  at  Rome.  He  had  not  turned  to 
the  Pope  at  Avignon,  but  he  had  withdrawn  the  spiritual 
obedience  of  Hungary  from  Rome,  and  had  appointed  to 
benefices  whom  he  would. ^  When  Gregory  became  Pope, 
Siffismund  renewed  his  intercourse  with  Rome.  He  sent  in 
1406  envoys  from  Spalatro  to  the  Pope  asking  for  help 
against  the  Turks  and  the  heretical  Bosnians,  and  Gregory 
had  hastened  to  grant  remission  of  sins  to  all  sinners  who 
aided  the  King  in  his  warfare.^  From  that  time  the  friendly 
relations  between  the  two  courts  remained  unbroken,  although 
the  Papacy  never  regained  its  old  influence  in  Hungary. 

Sigismund  regarded  the  Council  of  Pisa  as  a  machination  of 
the  French  who,  in  his  view,  wanted  to  get  possession  of 
both  the  Church  and  the  Empire,  and  to  reduce  the  whole 
world  under  their  sway.  There  were  some  grounds  for  this 
view.  Although  the  jurists  had  urged  independent  action 
on  the  College  as  early  as  October  1407,  yet  the  seven 
cardinals  of  Gregory,  when  they  broke  away  from  their 
obedience  and  appealed  from  the  Pope  to  Christ  and  a 
General  Council,  when  they  claimed  the  aid  of  princes  and 
prelates  for  the  union  of  the  Church,  still  did  not  attempt 
to  gain  their  end  independently  of  the  Pope.  It  was  not 
until  they  were  joined  by  the  French  cardinals  from  the 
*  De  Schismate,  153.  -  Sauerbrei,  16. 


308     m  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

obedience  of  Benedict  that  they  determined  on  the  decisive 
step.  No  sooner  had  the  step  been  taken  than  it  was  ac- 
claimed by  the  French  clergy  and  by  the  French  King. 
The  project  of  the  Council  of  Pisa  had  been  taken  under 
French  protection.  On  the  12th  January  1409  Charles  the 
Sixth  had  announced  his  intention  of  endeavouring  to  win 
over  the  courts  of  Europe  to  a  declaration  of  neutrality 
between  the  Popes;  he  had  despatched  his  ambassadors  and 
had  informed  the  cardinals  of  their  success.^  Sigismund  be- 
lieved that  his  aim  was  to  depose  both  existing  Popes  and 
to  elect  a  new  Pope  who  should  be  a  Frenchman,  as  sub- 
servient to  French  interests  as  Clement  the  Fifth  and  Clement 
the  Seventh  had  been  before  him.  There  was  more  hope  for 
Sigismund  from  a  man  like  Gregory  than  from  a  French 
Pope.  When  the  cardinals  wrote  to  him,  he  warned  them 
to  go  to  work  warily,  lest  they  should  otherwise  make  con- 
fusion worse  confounded. 

The  same  apprehension  was  present  to  the  minds  of  Sigis- 
mund, of  Rupert,  and  of  Pierre  d'Ailly,  Sigismund  would 
hear  of  no  council  in  which  the  Pope  was  not  present.  Let  a 
General  Council  meet  under  Pope  Gregory,  let  all  the  princes 
of  Europe  attend  in  person  or  by  their  representatives,  let  the 
council  then  determine  whether  Gregory  was  bound  by  the  oath 
he  had  sworn  ;  and  if  it  held  that  Gregory  was  so  bound,  then 
let  the  cardinals  proceed  to  a  fresh  election.  This  was  his 
plan ;  it  was  the  plan  also  of  Carlo  Malatesta.  But  neither 
of  them  had  any  influence  at  that  time  with  the  aged  Pope. 
The  Lord  of  Rimini  besought  him  to  enter  into  communica- 
tion with  the  cardinals  at  Pisa,  but  he  would  not.  'What 
would  become  of  his  own  cardinals  ? '  said  Gregory  ;  '  what 
would  become  of  King  Rupert,  of  King  Sigismund,  of  King 
Ladislas,  what  would  become  of  the  others  who  held  by  him, 
and  who  were  therefore  most  odious  to  the  cardinals  at 
Pisa?'^  All  was  of  no  avail.  King  Sigismund  in  his  scheme 
did  not  mention  Pope  Benedict ;  he  knew  that  France,  the 
most  important  country,  had  subtracted  her  obedience,  and  he 
took  no  heed  of  other  nations  such  as  Scotland  and  Spain ; 
nor  again  did  he  contemplate  the  contingency  that  the  council 

1  Goeller,  29-31.  ^  Mansi,  xxvii.  95. 


TWO  MINOR  COUNCILS  309 

might  decide  that  under  existing  circumstances  Gregory  was 
not  bound  by  his  promise.  His  uppermost  thought  was  that 
all  unity  of  action  was  utterly  impossible  if  the  council  was 
in  the  hands  of  France,  and  with  such  a  council  he  would 
have  nothing  to  do. 

Meantime,  on  the  30th  May  1408,  Florence  had  made  a 
league  with  Baklassare  Cossa,  Cardinal  Legate  of  Bologna: 
Pisa  had  been  granted  to  the  cardinals  for  their  council,  and 
they  had  issued  invitations  thereto.  The  cardinals  had  bidden 
Pope  Gregory  to  Pisa,  but  he  had  answered  them  that  to  him 
alone  the  right  of  convocation  belonged,  that  he  had  already 
convoked  a  council  elsewhere,  and  that  he  was  ready  to 
forgive  and  to  reinstate  them  if  they  attended.  Although 
the  Florentines  were  not  unwilling  to  meet  Gregory's  wishes, 
the  cardinals  stood  firm.  They  insisted  that  the  Pope's  right 
to  convoke  a  council  belonged  only  to  a  Pope  who  was 
recognised  as  the  universal  and  rightful  head  of  all  Christen- 
dom ;  that  at  present  there  were  two  Popes,  neither  of  whom 
had  obtained  universal  recognition  nor  could  be  held  to  be 
rightful  Pope ;  that  the  right  to  convoke  a  council  was  there- 
fore lost  to  the  Popes  and  had  devolved  on  the  cardinals  who 
had  chosen  them ;  and  finally,  that  it  was  the  expression  of 
their  intention  to  call  such  a  council  which  had  induced  the 
rival  Popes  to  issue  their  invitations. 

From  the  cardinals  King  Sigismund  received  two  invitations 
to  their  council,  one  dated  the  16th  July,  the  second  dated 
the  9th  September.  Though  there  were  now  three  councils 
convoked,  the  King  did  not  give  up  hope.  He  sent  his 
ambassador,  William  of  Prata,  to  Venice  to  induce  the 
Republic,  which  was  of  his  mind  in  the  matter,  to  reconcile 
Pope  and  cardinals,  and  to  get  them  to  hold  a  council  wherein 
it  should  be  determined  whether  the  Pope  was  bound  by  his 
promise  or  not ;  on  the  understanding,  however,  that  if  not  so 
bound,  the  Pope  should  nevertheless  be  obliged  to  abide  by 
whatever  resolution  the  council  might  approve  as  to  the 
means  of  ending  the  Schism.  In  other  words,  Sigismund  was 
now  ready  to  agree  that  the  Pope  should  be  forced  to  abdicate 
if  the  council  so  determined  ;  thus  far  he  was  willing  to 
concede  to  the  cardinals.     The  important  question  now  was. 


310    IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

however,  not  whether  the  Pope  was  bound  by  his  oath,  but 
who  was  entitled  to  convoke  the  council. 

At  the  end  of  January  Gregory  had  taken  up  his  abode  at 
Rimini,  under  the  protection  of  Carlo  Malatesta,  who  was 
renowned  and  respected  by  all  parties  both  as  a  general  and 
as  a  statesman.  Carlo  Malatesta  joined  with  the  King  and 
the  Republic,  and  persuaded  Gregory  to  be  ready  to  abandon 
his  own  council  provided  he  could  unite  with  his  cardinals  in 
calling  one.  Bologna,  Forli,  Mantua,  or  Rimini  was  suggested 
as  the  place  of  meeting ;  or,  as  Gregory  himself  proposed,  some 
place  might  be  named  by  an  umpire  elected  by  both  parties. 
William  of  Prata  and  Marino  Rosso  went  as  ambassadors  to 
the  cardinals ;  if  they  won  over  the  old  cardinals  of  Gregory, 
they  were  then  to  try  those  of  Benedict.  King  Sigismund 
knew  of  Benedict's  alleged  eagerness  for  the  union  of  the 
Church ;  and  if  he  and  Gregory  and  the  cardinals  could  all  be 
brought  to  be  of  one  mind,  then  a  time  and  place  for  the 
future  council  could  be  fixed,  and  there  would  be  a  chance  of 
the  Schism  being  really  ended.^  But  the  cardinals  regarded 
a  proposal  emanating  from  their  old  enemy  as  might  have 
been  expected  :  they  were  not  again  to  be  deceived  by  him ; 
there  could  be  but  one  result  to  the  embassy  :  they  refused  to 
stultify  themselves  in  the  eyes  of  Europe  by  giving  up  their 
council  at  Pisa. 

King  Sigismund  was  disappointed.  On  the  7th  February 
1409  he  informed  the  republic  of  Venice  that  he  had  let  the 
cardinals  know  that  he  held  Gregory  for  the  only  true  Pope, 
and  that  he  had  no  intention  of  subtracting  the  obedience  of 
Hungary  from  him.  He  even  appeared  at  this  time  to 
contemplate  appearing  at  the  council  which  that  Pope  had 
convoked  at  Udine.  Gregory  meantime,  on  the  14th  December, 
addressed  a  final  supplication  to  his  cardinals  to  return  to 
their  obedience:  on  the  14th  January  1409  they  received 
from  him  a  Bull  denouncing  them  as  apostates,  schismatics, 
blasphemers,  and  foresworn.  It  was  a  mere  brutiim  fidmen 
from  the  aged  Pope,  who  was  now  to  feel  his  forsaken  condi- 
tion. At  the  end  of  January  the  Republic  of  Florence 
definitely  seceded  to  the  enemy's  camp.  About  the  same 
'  Mansi,  xxvi.  iiii  ;  Goeller,  42. 


TWO  MINOR  COUNCILS  311 

time  appeared  ambassadors  from  Henry  the  Fourth  of 
England,  urging  the  Pope  to  agree  to  the  Council  at  Pisa,  and 
informing  hitn  that,  in  any  case,  prelates  from  England  would 
be  in  attendance  there.  Sigismund  himself  forsook  him. 
Although  the  King  was  not  represented  at  the  Council  of 
Pisa,  he  informed  the  cardinals  that  he  was  in  accord  with  his 
brother's  wishes.  He  did  not  believe  in  the  Council  of  Pisa; 
he  refused  to  countenance  its  proceedings ;  but  he  was 
eminently  an  active,  practical  man,  with  head  and  hands  full 
of  far-reaching  projects,  and  he  needed  a  Pope  who  could 
help  him.  A  Pope  forsaken  by  every  crowned  head  of 
Europe,  except  his  two  enemies  Ladislas  and  Rupert,  was  no 
good  to  King  Sigismund  of  Hungary.  He  was  represented 
neither  at  the  Council  of  Pisa  nor  at  that  of  Cividale. 

The  account  of  the  strenuous  opposition  offered  by  King 
Ladislas  of  Naples,  and  of  the  equally  strenuous  measures 
taken  in  defence  of  the  council  by  Baldassare  Cossa,  Papal 
Legate  at  Bologna,  while  it  clears  the  way  for  the  considera- 
tion of  what  occurred  at  Pisa,  has  taken  us  somewhat  in 
advance  of  the  rest  of  the  story.  From  the  date  of  the 
arrival  of  Simon  de  Cramaud  and  Pierre  Plaoul  from  their 
embassy  to  Pope  Gregory,  there  had  been,  as  has  already  been 
mentioned,  constant  correspondence  between  Paris  and  Leg- 
horn, It  was  determined  to  send  twelve  representatives  from 
every  ecclesiastical  province  of  France  to  the  Council  of  Pisa. 
The  Abbe  of  Citeaux  promised  to  attend  with  twelve  Cistercian 
abbots ;  the  bishops,  monasteries,  and  universities  had  received 
separate  invitations,  and  all  were  warned  by  the  King  to  be  in 
attendance  at  Pisa  on  the  25th  March  1409.  The  influence 
of  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  whose  apology  for  his  crime  had 
been  read  on  the  8th  March  by  Jean  Petit,  was  supreme. 
The  University  of  Paris  surpassed  itself  in  its  animosity  to 
Pope  Benedict :  it  declared  the  three  French  cardinals  who 
still  adhered  to  him,  as  well  as  two  new  French  cardinals  whom 
he  had  recently  promoted,  to  be  'suspects';  it  published  a 
fresh  ordonnance  of  neutrality.  There  was  much  discussion 
in  the  Council  at  Paris  as  to  the  government  of  the  Church, 
the  collation  of  benefices,  and  other  points  in  the  absence  of 
the  Pope,  but  arrangements  were  made.     The  French  court 


312     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

and  clergy,  as  a  body,  were  prepared  loyally  to  support  the 
Council  of  Pisa. 

While  the  fifth   council  of  the  clergy  was  being  held   at 
Paris,  Pope  Benedict  was  gathering  the  remains  of  his  court 
around  him  at  Perpignan.     Seven   of  his  cardinals  had  left 
him  to  join  the  twelve  cardinals  of  the  opposite  obedience  in 
Italy;    an  eighth  had  disappeared  and  his  whereabouts  was 
not  known ;  a  ninth,  the  Cardinal  Anglesola,  had  died  shortly 
after  landing  in  Rousillon ;  a  tenth,  Louis  de  Bar,  had  gone 
to  the  court  of  France,  to  take  there  the  place  to  which  his 
birth  entitled  him.     There  remained  only  three  :  the  Savoyard 
de  Chalant,  whom  Benedict  had  raised  to  the  purple  in  1404 
but  could  not  trust;  Jean  Flandrin,  who  had  been  cardinal 
since  1390 ;  and  Louis  Fieschi  of  Geneva,  who  owed  his  hat 
originally  to  Pope   Urban  the  Sixth  (1385).     On   the  22nd 
September  Benedict   raised  five   more  to  the  college,   one  a 
native  of  Castile,  two  of  Aragon,  and  two  of  France.     One 
of  these  latter,  however,  died  sixteen  days  after  his  nomina- 
tion.     There  remained  therefore  seven   cardinals  to  support 
the   Pope    in    his    council    at   Perpignan.       He   had    invited 
the    French    clergy,   but  the  King  of  France  had    promptly 
issued   decrees  forbidding   them    to  attend,  and   had    posted 
guards  to  stop  their  egress  into  Spain.     Benedict  still  kept 
up   correspondence   with  his   cardinals  in  Italy :    in    July    he 
summoned  them   to  attend  his  council ;    in   September  they 
replied  by  announcing  to  him  the  Council  of  Pisa  and  regret- 
ting that  they  could  not  attend  that  at  Perpignan,  of  which 
they  did  not  see  the  use.     Then  on  the  6th  November  arrived 
the  official  intimation  of  the  Council  at  Pisa,  to  which  Benedict 
and    his    three   original   cardinals,  who   were  also    invited  to 
attend,  replied  that  he  alone  could  convoke  a  General  Council, 
that  he  could  not  go  to  Pisa,  and  that  his  cardinals  were  to 
come  to  Perpignan.      The  date  fixed   for  the    opening  had 
already   passed.      Still    another   communication   was   to  pass 
from  his  refractory  cardinals  to  Pope  Benedict.     On  the  25th 
January  1409  they  sent  him  a  long  letter  from  Pisa,  in  which 
they  again  reminded  him  of  his  authorising  them   to  call  a 
synod  ;  they  mentioned  that  his  rival  now  had  scarce  where 
to  lay  his  head,  and  expressed  their  hope  that  his  perverse 


TWO  MINOR  COUNCILS  313 

refractoriness  would  not  endanger  the  unity  of  the  Church  ; 
they  again  begged  Benedict  to  appear  at  the  council  at  Pisa. 
Not  till  the  5th  March  did  the  Pope  answer  this  letter.  He 
referred  them  to  the  conclusions  of  his  Council  of  Perpignaii, 
which  had  been  published,  and  to  the  letters  which  his  envoys 
should  bring  as  soon  as  they  had  obtained  their  safe-conduct ; 
he  concluded  by  warning  them  against  the  election  of  any 
new  Pope.  Meantime,  as  already  intimated,  the  Council  of 
Perpignan  had  been  held.^ 

The  Council  of  Perpignan  had  been  called  for  the  1st 
November,  but  the  opening  was  postponed  for  a  fortnight, 
and  the  Pope  to  increase  his  pomp  had,  like  his  rival,  named 
four  Patriarchs.  On  the  15th  November  the  stately  little 
Pope  in  great  splendour  descended  from  the  Castle  of  Per- 
pignan to  the  Church  de  la  Real  {beatae  Mariae  regalis)  and 
opened  his  council.  The  Pope  himself  read  the  Mass,  the 
Dominican  Bishop  of  Oleron  preached  ;  King  Martin  of  Aragon 
was  the  Protector  of  the  Council,  Beside  the  four  Patriarchs 
and  the  nine  cardinals  there  were  present  the  Archbishops  of 
Toledo,  Saragossa,  and  Tarragona ;  thirty-three  bishops, 
together  with  many  prelates  from  different  parts  of  the 
peninsula  and  also  from  Gascony,  Savoy,  and  Lorraine,  Many 
more  would  have  come  from  France,  but  for  the  royal  prohibi- 
tion, and  many  of  those  who  did  come  were  forced  to  wear 
disguises  to  elude  the  guards  set  to  stop  them  on  the  road. 
Including  the  envoys  from  different  potentates  there  were  not 
far  short  of  three  hundred  persons  assembled,-  The  first  and 
the  second  sessions  (Saturday,  17th  November)  were  ceremonial : 
the  Pope  made  his  confession  of  orthodoxy.  The  real  busi- 
ness began  with  the  third  session  on  the  21st  November, 

Benedict  rose  and  spoke  shortly  on  the  importance  of 
oecumenical  councils.  He  regretted  that  the  Babylonish  con- 
fusion of  the  time  had  prevented  him  from  convoking  one, 
but  he  had  assembled  the  present  council  to  do  what  in  him 
lay  for  the  reformation  of  the  Church  and  the  termination  of 
the  unfortunate  Schism  ;  and  in  order  to  refute  the  calumnies 
against  him,  he  had  committed  to  wTiting  a  full  account  of 
all  his  endeavours  hitherto.  The  Cardinal  de  Chalant  then 
'  Hefele,  vi.  935.  ^  Valois,  iv.  47. 


314     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

began  to  read  tlie  lengthy  memoir  which  set  forth  in  its  true 
light  the  whole  pontificate  of  Pope   Benedict.     It  took  from 
the  third  to  the  ninth  session,  on  the  1st  December,  to  get 
through  the  long  history.     Then   on  the  5th  December  the 
Pope  asked  the  council  for  its  advice  as  to  his  future  conduct, 
alleging  that  he  was  ready  to  sacrifice  his  life  in   the  interest 
of  the   Church.     Seeing   that  the  majority  of  those  present 
were  Spaniards,  Benedict  thought  he  might  safely  trust  them 
with  his  future.      But   he    was  bitterly   disappointed.     The 
answer  should  have  been  given  on   the   12th   December,  but 
owing  to  the  difficidty  of  the  question  and  the  long  delibera- 
tion necessary,  the  council  found   it  impossible  to  reply  to 
the   Pope"'s  question  before  Friday,  the   1st  February  1409. 
The  majority  of  the  members  had  meantime  departed.     The 
council  recognised  the  efforts  which  Benedict  had   made ;  it 
freed  him   from   all   reproach   of  heresy  or   schism  ;    it  pro- 
claimed him  a  good  Christian  and  a  good  Pope.     But  it   was 
intent  on  ending  the  Schism,  and  on  doing  so  with   the  least 
delay  possible.     Some  of  its  members  desired  him   to    send 
proctors  to  Pisa  empowered  to  effect  his  abdication  in  case  of 
the  death,  the  abdication,  or  the  deposition   of  his  rival  :^ 
this  advice  was  condemned  by  others ;    discussions  followed ; 
there  seemed  little   hope  of   unanimity ;    and   the   numbers 
dwindled  still  further.     Those  in  attendance  were  reduced  to 
sixty,  to  thirty,  to   eighteen,  finally   to  ten  :  these  were  the 
Cardinals  of  Toulouse  and  Chalons  ;  the  Patriarch  of  Antioch, 
the  Archbishops  of  Saragossa  and  Tarragona,  the  Chancellor 
of  the  King  of  Castile,  three  bishops,  and  the  general  of  the 
Dominican  order. 

On  the  1st  February,  in  the  names  of  eighteen  members  of 
the  council,  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople  presented  to 
the  Pope  a  schedule  in  which  they  besought  him  to  hold  fast 
to  the  'way  of  cession''  and  to  declare  his  readiness  to 
abdicate  if  his  rival  were  deposed  ;  to  send  to  Gregory  and 
to  the  cardinals  at  Pisa  trustworthy  envoys  empowered  to 
do  all  that  he  could  do  in  person  to  secure  the  peace  of  the 
Church ;  and  finally,  to  arrange  that  in  case  of  his  death 
no  new  election  should  be  made.-  He  was  still,  in  spite  oi 
^  Mansi,  xxvi.  iiio.  "  Hefele,  vi.  990  ;  Valois,  iv.  49. 


TWO  MINOR  COUNCILS  315 

all  that  he  had  done,  in  the  teeth  of  the  councirs  own 
approval  of  his  actions,  to  be  forced  into  the  '  way  of  cession  "* 
which  he  hated.  The  determined  little  Pope  received  the 
deputation,  and  read  the  schedule  :  '  I  shall  do  none  of  these 
things,'  he  said  ;  '  besides,  I  know  that  you  are  not  all  of 
one  mind/  '  Holy  Father,'  replied  the  deputation,  '  there 
is  but  one  of  us  who  dissents/  '  Then  he  is  more  sensible 
than  the  rest  of  you,"'  answered  Benedict ;  and  turning  to 
De  Chalant,  he  added  angrily  :  '  I  forbid  you  on  your 
obedience  to  speak  of  this  matter  in  the  council.  Do  you 
wish  to  make  me  a  scandal  .^ '  'I  desire  to  raise  no  scandal, 
Holy  Father,'  replied  the  Savoyard,  '  but  I  must  express  my 
opinion  in  the  council.'  The  Pope  became  furious,  and 
threatened  to  imprison  the  Cardinal  so  that  he  should  never 
see  the  sun  again.  Finally  the  Pope  agreed  to  select  envoys 
from  different  nations  to  represent  him  at  Pisa,  and  to 
examine  the  conditions  on  which  it  was  proposed  to  treat  of 
the  peace  of  the  Church.  This  was  on  the  12th  February  ; 
he  adjourned  the  announcement  of  the  names  of  his 
ambassadors  to  the  26th  March.  In  the  meantime  he  w^as 
again  invited  to  go  to  Pisa ;  the  French  king,  Constable 
Boucicaut,  the  Genoese,  and  the  Florentines,  offered  him  a 
safe-conduct  for  thirteen  months.  For  all  reply  Benedict 
threatened  to  excommunicate  any  one  who  took  any 
measures  to  his  prejudice  or  who  dared  to  elect  a  new  Pope 
while  he  was  alive. ^  His  logical  firmness  had  degenerated 
into  headstrong  obstinacy.  Even  he,  however,  was  obliged  to 
recognise  that  the  Council  of  Perpignan  was  a  deplorable 
failure,  although  it  was  not  such  an  utter  fiasco  as  the  council 
subsequently  held  by  his  rival  Gregory. 

Pope  Benedict  the  Thirteenth  enjoyed  at  least  the  credit  of 
holding  his  council  at  Perpignan  in  good  time:  it  was  opened 
and  was  practically  closed  before  the  great  Council  of  Pisa 
commenced.  But  Pope  Gregory  the  Twelfth  was  more  dila- 
tory. On  the  2nd  July  1408  he  had  announced  that  he  called 
a  General  Council  for  next  Pentecost  at  some  place,  to  be  here- 
after determined,  in  the  Province  of  Aquileia  or  the  Exarchate 
of  Ravenna;  and  on  the  5th  July  he  had  written  to  King 
'  Mansi,  xxvi.  ii  19. 


316     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

Rupert  to  the  same  effect.  At  the  end  of  July  and  the  beginning 
of  August  he  had  commissioned  the  Austin  Friar  Hieronymus 
and  the  Minorite  Fernandas  to  carry  the  news  to  all  patriarchs, 
archbishops,  and  others.  On  the  19th  September  he  created 
a  batch  of  ten  new  cardinals.  In  October,  Cardinal  Giovanni 
Dominici  had  written  to  England.  On  the  13th  December 
the  Toper's  nephew,  Antonio  Corrario,  was  sent  as  Cardinal 
Legate  to  Germany  and  Flanders ;  on  the  8th  January 
Giovanni  Dominici  was  similarly  sent  to  Hungary  and  Poland; 
and  on  the  17th  Bishop  Antonio  of  Porto  was  sent  to  England 
to  beat  up  recruits  for  the  council,  the  place  of  meeting  having 
on  the  19th  December  been  designated  as  Cividale  and  Udine.^ 

Meantime  Lady  Day  1409  came  and  the  great  Council  of  Pisa 
was  opened.  Carlo  Malatesta,  Pope  Gregory's  best  and  truest 
friend,  went  there  to  protest ;  the  details  of  his  interviews  with 
the  cardinals  will  hereafter  be  narrated.  When  he  returned 
to  Rimini  he  did  his  best  to  induce  the  Pope  to  go  with  his 
Curia  to  Pistoja  or  San  Miniato  in  order  to  treat  with  the 
cardinals ;  but  Gregory,  who  was  persuaded  that  they  wanted 
to  capture  him,  obstinately  refused,  and  held  fast  to  his  own 
plan  of  a  council  in  the  Province  of  Friuli."  Difficulties  were 
already  arising.  Gregory  had  intended  to  hold  his  synod  in 
Udine,  which  like  Bologna  was  a  city  of  arcaded  streets,  but 
which  was  not  as  yet  guarded  by  the  citadel  on  Attila's  Mound 
nor  adorned  by  the  civic  ]}alace  modelled  after  that  of  the 
Doges  of  Venice.  Udine  was,  however,  the  capital  of  the 
Patriarchs  of  Aquileia,  and  they  were  the  chief  princes  of  that 
corner  of  Italy.  L^nfortunately  the  Patriarch  in  possession  at 
this  present  was  not  the  nominee  of  Pope  Gregory,  but  the 
adherent  of  King  Wenzel  and  of  the  Cardinals.  On  the  16th 
May  the  men  of  Udine  held  a  meeting  in  opposition  to  the 
projected  council,  and  on  the  29th  they  called  on  their  Patri- 
arch, Antonius  Pancera  de  Portogruario,  to  remain  true  to 
them  and  not  to  give  in  to  Pope  Gregory.^  The  Pope  was 
therefore  obliged  to  change  the  venue  to  the  little  town  of 
Cividale,  still  nearer  to  the  Julian  Alps,  ten  miles  to  the  east 
of  Udine. 

Cividale,  formerly  known  as  Friuli  or  Forum  Julii,  where 

'    Rofin.  Qunrt.  223-30.  '  Mansi,  xxvii.  300.  *  Koem.  Quart.  235. 


TWO  MINOR  COUNCILS  317 

the  wind  blows  shrewdly  from  '  the  Alpine  height  of  blue 
Friiili's  mountains,'  '  though  now  shorn  of  some  of  its  old 
glory,  is  still  one  of  the  most  interesting  and  picturesque  cities 
of  the  Venetian  mainland.  It  is  situated  on  the  north-eastern 
margin  of  that  great  alluvial  plain,  and  clings,  as  it  were,  to 
the  skirts  of  the  mountains  which  are  climbed  by  the  highway 
of  the  Predil  Pass.  The  city  is  divided  from  one  of  its  suburbs 
by  a  deep  gorge,  through  which,  blue  as  a  turquoise,  flow 
the  waters  of  the  river  Natisone  on  their  way  to  the  ruins 
of  desolate  Aquileia.'^  It  was  here,  on  the  6th  June  1409, 
more  than  ten  weeks  after  the  cardinals  had  passed  in  solemn 
inaugural  procession  over  the  wooden  bridge  of  the  Arno,  less 
than  three  weeks  before  the  day  when  the  bells  rang  out  from 
the  Leaning  Tower  their  welcome  to  the  new  Pope  of  the 
council,  that  Pope  Gregory  the  Twelfth  opened  his  council. 
King  Ladislas  of  Naples,  who  sixteen  years  earlier  had  been 
offered  in  marriage  to  the  daughter  of  Sultan  Bajazet,'^  was 
now  Protector  of  the  Holy  Roman  Church.  With  his  aid 
Gregory  had  attempted  to  win  the  allegiance  of  his  own  native 
city ;  but  the  Venetians,  undeterred  by  '  French  fatuity  and 
Florentine  malignity,'  had  declined  ;  they  ultimately  went  over 
to  the  Council  of  Pisa  and  its  Pope.  Nor  did  any  of  the 
German  prelates  appear ;  the  charming  of  the  Pope's  nephew 
had  been  in  vain ;  and  King  Rupert's  letter,  only  sent  off 
about  the  middle  of  June,  had  not  had  time  to  take  effect. 

The  Pope  said  Mass  and  opened  the  Council,  and  by  reason 
of  the  paucity  of  numbers  postponed  the  second  session  for  a 
fortnight.  On  the  20th  June  there  were  present  six  cardinals, 
three  envoys  from  the  King  of  the  Romans  and  two  from  King 
Ladislas  ;  the  business  officials  were  elected  and  the  next  session 
appointed  for  the  28th.  On  that  date  certain  acts  and  deeds 
were  read,  but  nothing  of  importance  was  done,  and  the  fourth 
session  was  fixed  for  the  15th  July,  before  which  date  the 
hearts  of  the  little  assembly  were  cheered  by  the  advent  of 
three  more  cardinals.  At  the  next  meeting  the  Pope  rose  and 
explained  to  the  '(Ecumenical  Council'  all  the  manifold  labours 
he  had  endured  in  trying  to  effect  a  meeting  with  his  rival,  and 
concluded  by  reminding  them  that  they  were  there  present  in 

*  Hodgkin,  vi.  39.  *  Huber,  Ceschichte  Ocsterreichs.  ii.  356. 


318     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

order  to  express  their  views  as  to  the  best  method  of  obtaining 
union  in  the  Church.  The  Cardinal  of  Utica  then  addressed 
them  :  he  thought  that  some  principality  or  power,  the 
Republic  of  Venice  for  choice,  should  intervene  and  invite  all 
three  Popes  to  meet  in  order  simultaneously  to  resign.  Even  if 
it  were  impossible  to  procure  the  attendance  of  the  Pope  at 
Avignon,  still  he  was  bound  by  the  oath  which  he  had  taken 
at  his  coronation  and  by  his  subsequent  promise,  so  tliat  he 
could  be  condemned  as  a  fautor  of  schism,  a  perjurer,  a  contu- 
macious and  incorrigible  heretic.^  It  was  late  when  the  worthy 
cardinal  had  finished,  and  the  same  session  was  continued  on 
the  23rd,  when  the  Cardinal  of  Ragusa,  the  ambassadors  of  the 
two  Kings,  and  others  presented  their  views,  some  in  writing 
and  some  by  word  of  mouth,  after  which  the  fifth  session  was 
fixed  for  the  2nd  August. 

Pope  Gregory  meantime,  on  the  21st  July,  despatched  the 
Austin  Hermit  Hieronymus  to  Hungary,  and  five  days  later 
appointed  Bishop  Albert  of  Posen  as  his  Legate  to  Poland,  and 
Archbishop  Sbinko  of  Prague  to  Bohemia.^  He  also  nominated 
in  the  same  capacity  Bishop  Henry  of  Winchester,  notorious 
for  his  incontinence,  as  Legate  in  England.^  The  fifth  session 
was  engrossed  by  the  ambassadors  of  King  Rupert :  they  were 
the  Bishops  of  Wuerzburg,  Worms,  and  Verden,  the  Abbot  of 
Maulbronn,  Blasius  of  Milan,  and  three  other  doctors  of  law. 
They  read  the  King's  appeal  from  the  Council  of  Pisa,  which 
was  admitted  and  duly  considered  ;  finally  it  was  agreed  that  a 
missive  should  be  sent  to  the  Republic  of  Venice,  urging  them 
to  display  their  '  zeal,  love,  favour,  and  suffrage '  to  our  Lord 
the  Pope.  King  Ruperfs  letters  to  the  princes,  bishops, 
chapters,  and  cities  of  Germany  had  been  as  ineffective  as 
usual ;  no  representative  appeared.  Gregory  on  the  same  day 
sent  off  two  envoys  to  Venice,  but  received  no  favourable  reply 
from  the  Republic.  At  the  sixth  session,  held  on  the  23rd 
August,  the  number  of  cardinals  in  attendance,  notwithstand- 
ing tiie  recent  creations,  had  by  reason  of  their  sickness 
dwindled  to  six.  At  this  session  a  commission  was  appointed 
to  investigate  the  title  to  the  Papacy.  The  next  meeting,  on 
the  27th,  was  occupied  in  hearing  their  report ;  and  the  Pope 

»  Roem.  Quart.  256.  *  Ibid.  238-9.  '-  Hefele,  vi.  1038. 


TWO  MINOR  COUNCILS  319 

expressed  his  intention  of  continuing  the  present  council  at 
some  future  time  at  Rome,  but  at  the  same  time  appointed  a 
date  for  the  next  session. 

The  eighth,  and  as  it  proved  the  last  and  most  important, 
session  of  the  Council  of  Cividale  was  held  on  the  5th  September 
1409.  Probably  the  members  felt  that  their  days  in  Friuli 
Avere  short,  for  they  were  roused  into  unwonted  activity.  They 
found  that  Urban  the  Sixth,  Boniface  the  Ninth,  and  Innocent 
the  Seventh  had  been  canonically  elected  ;  that  Gregory  was 
the  only  rightful  Pope ;  that  the  two  Peters,  of  Luna  and  of 
Candia — the  latter  had  been  elected  by  the  Council  of  Pisa — 
were  sacrilegious  Antipopes,  schismatics,  perjurers,  disturbers 
and  destroyers  of  the  Church.  Having  fulminated  this  dreadful 
sentence,  the  tiny  council  adjourned  till  the  9th,  but  they  were 
never  to  meet  again,  for  before  that  day  the  Pope  had  fled. 
Gregory  declared  that  he  was  still  burning  with  desire  for  the 
unity  of  the  Church,  and  that  he  was  ready  to  resign  if  Peter  of 
Luna  and  Peter  of  Candia  would  do  the  like  '  accordine:  to  the 
formulary  of  the  conclave.'  He  left  the  time  and  place  of 
resignation  to  be  fixed  by  the  three  Kings,  Rupert  of  Germany, 
Ladislas  of  Naples,  and  Sigismund  of  Hungary.  They  were  to 
act  in  concert,  and  he  named  as  his  own  attorney  Carlo 
Malatesta.^  The  proposal  sounded  like  a  feeble  joke  from 
the  weak  old  man ;  for  Sigismund  and  Ladislas  had  been 
deadly  enemies  for  the  last  twenty  years,  Ladislas  and  Rupert 
were  competitors  for  the  imperial  crown,  and  Sigismund  and 
Rupert  were  at  odds  on  the  same  score.  It  would  have 
been  impossible  to  find  three  princes  in  Europe  less  likely 
to  meet  and  agree  together  than  were  these  three.  However, 
it  mattered  little  what  Gregory  said  or  did.  He  had  written 
to  King  Rupert,  thanking  him  for  his  fidelity  and  teUing 
him  that  he  felt  his  position  becoming  precarious  and  must 
betake  himself  to  the  refuge  of  King  Ladislas.  His  chief 
object  now  was  to  get  away  to  some  place  safer  than  Cividale. 

Antonius  de  Portogruario,  the  nominee  of  the  cardinals  at 

Pisa,  was  now  Patriarch  of  Aquileia  in   possession.    A  year 

earlier  Pope  Gregory  had   attempted   to  oust  him  :   the  time 

had  now  come  for  the   Patriarch   to  take  his  revenge.     He 

1  Mansi,  xxvi.  1091. 


320     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

caused  all  the  passes  to  be  watched  to  prevent  the  escape  of 
the  Pope  and  his  cardinals.  The  Venetians  had  sent  to  the 
Pope  to  ascertain  his  intentions,  and  Gregory  feared  that 
they  might  take  upon  them  to  execute  the  decree  of  excom- 
munication which  the  Council  of  Pisa  had  passed  against  him. 
He  asked  for  time  to  give  his  answer;  he  really  wanted  the 
time  to  plan  his  escape  to  the  port  where  the  two  galleys  sent 
by  King  Ladislas  were  awaiting  him.  It  was  on  the  6th 
September  before  daybreak,  between  the  seventh  and  eighth 
hours  of  the  night,  that  the  Pope  took  flight.  He  dressed  his 
chamberlain,  Paolo  Lolli,  a  Roman,  who  was  very  like  him  in 
the  face,  in  the  pontifical  robes,  and  gave  him  the  escort  of 
Ladislas  as  his  guard.  Gregory  disguised  himself  as  a 
merchant ;  he  mounted  a  horse,  and  took  with  him  only  two 
foot-servants.  Thus  he  managed  to  elude  the  sentries  of  the 
Patriarch ;  he  reached  the  shore,  took  a  small  boat,  gained 
the  galleys,  and  thus  made  his  escape  to  Gaeta.  The  un- 
fortunate chamberlain  Lolli  was  seized,  forced  to  walk  two 
miles  bare-headed,  and  was  forcibly  dragged  along  before  the 
mistake  was  discovered.  In  their  anger  the  soldiers  tore  off 
his  gorgeous  robes,  beat  him,  and  took  from  him  the  five 
hundred  golden  florins  which  he  carried  ;  one  of  his  captors 
donned  the  pontifical  raiment,  marched  up  and  down  the 
streets  of  Udine,  and  showered  sham  benedictions  on  the 
people.  Gregory  meantime  got  safe  to  Ladislas,  his  present  and 
most  powerful  protector.^ 

Pitiful  as  were  his  efforts  for  supremacy  in  the  Church, 
Pope  Gregory  had  not  been  entirely  without  help  and 
sympathy.  King  Ladislas  of  Naples  and  Carlo  Malatesta  of 
Rimini  had  been  faithful  to  him.  Venice  had  refused  to 
listen  to  the  French  ambassadors  and  declined  for  the  time 
to  subtract  her  obedience ;  Sigismund  of  Hungary  would  not 
follow  the  lead  of  Wenzel,  and  took  no  part  in  the  Council  of 
Constance.  Nor  was  Benedict  without  his  adherents :  the 
King  of  Aragon  announced  to  the  King  of  France  that  he 
meant  to  take  part  in  the  Council  of  Perpignan,  and  not  in 
that  of  Pisa ;  the  Regent  of  Castile  would  only  consent  to 
subtract  his  obedience  if  Benedict  did  not  abdicate  before  the 

1  De  Schismaie,  316  ;  Hefele,  vi.  1036-9. 


TWO  MINOR  COUNCILS  321 

Council  of  the  Cardinals  assembled  ;  the  Regent  and  the 
prelates  of  Scotland  remained  deaf  to  the  charming  of  the 
King  of  France ;  and  Pope  Benedict  thought  he  could  count 
upon  the  adhesion  of  Anthony  of  Brabant,  brotiier  of  John, 
Duke  of  Burgundy. 

England  took  the  side  of  the  cardinals  at  Pisa.  The 
Abbot  of  Westminster  and  other  Englishmen  of  note  had 
been  at  Lucca  and  had  witnessed  Gregory's  tergiversations ; 
Archbishop  Arundel  was  at  one  with  the  French,  and  under 
his  influence  the  heart  of  King  Henry  the  Fourth  had  been 
'  most  blessedly  kindled  with  zeal  for  the  union  of  the  Church.' 
When  the  King  '  heard  how  matters  sped  in  Italy,  he  did 
not  mince  his  words.  He  would  stand  by  the  cardinals  if  he 
had  to  shed  his  blood  or  be  brayed  in  bits  for  it.'  Notwith- 
standing this  it  was  with  great  reluctance  that  he  abandoned 
Gregory,  and  he  subsequently  assured  King  Rupert  that  he 
had  never  formally  withdrawn  obedience.  But  Francesco 
Uguccione,  Archbishop  of  Bordeaux,  crossed  the  Channel  in 
November  1408,  bringing  with  him  a  letter  from  Simon  de 
Cramaud  and  other  prelates  in  Paris  ;  he  pleaded  '  laudably 
and  elegantly '  before  the  King  and  his  lords  spiritual  and 
temporal.  Sir  John  Cheyne  and  Bishop  Chichele,  who  held 
a  brief  for  Gregory,  remained  silent;  and  the  cardinal  was 
assured  that  England  would  send  her  representatives  to  the 
council  at  Pisa.^ 

The  King  of  France  was  equally  successful  elsewhere  in  his 
endeavours  on  behalf  of  the  cardinals.  Genoa  subtracted  her 
obedience  on  the  21st  July  1408;  Florence  subtracted  hers 
formally  on  the  7th  February  1409 ;  Milan  and  Bologna  were 
already  on  the  side  of  France ;  Germany  was  divided.  King 
Rupert  had  some  ground  for  his  bitter  denunciations  of  the 
French  court,  who  now,  under  the  influence  of  John  the  Fear- 
less, were  negotiating  a  marriage  between  the  niece  of  his 
rival  Wenzel  and  the  nephew  of  the  Duke  of  Burgundy, 
France,  said  the  King,  was  alone  responsible  for  the  prolonga- 
tion of  the  Schism  ;  France  had  lavished  gold  to  induce  the 
cardinals  to  elect  a  French  Pope ;  France  had  suddenly 
become  favourable  to  a  council  because  she  saw  herself  power- 

*  Wylie,  iii.  349-66. 


322     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

less  otherwise  to  attain  her  ends ;  France  was  using  the 
Church  simply  to  extend  her  conquests  on  the  side  of  the 
Empire.  But  Heaven  was  tired  of  this  impious  policy; 
the  kingdom  was  a  prey  to  the  horrors  of  war ;  Charles  was 
lunatic,  and  the  royal  princes  were  at  deadly  enmity  one  with 
another.  The  colouring  of  the  picture  was  overcharged,  but 
there  was  a  certain  amount  of  truth  in  the  main  outlines.^ 
The  initial  step  had  been  taken  by  the  cardinals,  of  whom  the 
majority  were  Italian.  The  University  of  Bologna  had  kept 
step  with  the  University  of  Paris.  The  treatise  of  Francesco 
Zabarella,  dated  the  4th  November  1408,  had  set  forth  the 
superiority  of  the  council  over  the  Pope  as  clearly  as  any 
tractate  of  Jean  Gerson.  The  Kings  of  England,  of  Bohemia, 
of  Poland,  of  Portugal,  of  Cyprus  ;  the  Dukes  of  Holland  and 
of  Austria ;  the  Electors  of  Cologne  and  of  Mainz  and  other 
magnates  of  Germany — all  these,  no  less  than  the  French,  had 
promised  to  take  part  in  the  heroic  endeavour  which  the 
cardinals  were  to  make  at  Pisa  to  put  an  end  to  the  accursed, 
thirty  years  old,  Great  Schism  of  the  Church. 

*  Valois,  iv.  72. 


PISA  323 


CHAPTER    IX 

PISA 

At  the  time  of  the  Great  Council  of  Pisa,  this  Ghibeline  city, 
which  had  ever  been  faithful  to  the  Emperor,  had  fallen  under 
the  dominion  of  her  ancient  rival,  the  Guelf  city  of  Florence, 
which  had  generally  been  faithful  to  the  Pope ;  so  that  from 
the  political  point  of  view  there  was  something  appropriate 
in  its  being  the  scene  of  an  oecumenical  council,  supposed  to 
represent  all  parties.  The  change  in  its  fortune  was  the 
result  of  a  quadrilateral  struggle  between  France,  as  repre- 
sented by  Boucicaut  the  Governor  of  Genoa,  Florence,  and 
the  Signor  and  the  people  of  Pisa  itself.  It  had  come  about 
on  this  wise. 

Pisa  in  old  times,  like  Ravenna,  had  been  situate  almost 
on  the  shore  of  Italy  ;  ^  its  navy  had  rivalled  those  of  Venice 
and  Genoa.  Now  Pisa,  like  Ravenna,  was  six  miles  inland. 
It  is  in  the  centre  of  a  large,  plain,  corn-growing  land  ;  to  the 
north-east  are  the  Monte  Pisani,  whose  snow-capped  heights 
in  winter  and  early  spring  flush  to  a  delicate  pink  in  the 
rays  of  the  western  sun  ;  to  the  west  are  other  small  hills. 
As  the  dry  land  grew  up  between  the  city  and  the  sea,  each 
place  had  constructed  for  itself  a  new  port;  in  Ravenna  it 
was  Classis,  at  Pisa  it  was  Leghorn.  And  just  as  at  Ravenna 
there  was  a  pine  forest,  the  '  immemorial  wood  '  which  Bvron 
loved,  seaward  from  the  city,  so  too  at  Pisa  there  was  to  the 
north-west,  seaward  from  the  city,  a  pine  forest  where  Shelley 
wandered, 

'All  overwrought  with  branclilike  traceries 
In  which  there  is  religion. ' 


^  Dennis,  Cities  and  Cemeteries  of  Etruria,  ii.  79,  note. 


324     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

Pisa,  like  Perugia  and  Siena,  fell  before  the  might  of  Gian 
Galeazzo  of  Milan,  and  when  his  strong  hand  was  removed  by 
death,  the  old  feud  with  Florence  broke  out  afresh.  The 
Pisans  ravaged  the  fields  and  vineyards  and  harried  the  cattle 
of  Florence,  and  the  Florentines  did  the  like  by  them  ;  the 
advantage  lay  on  the  side  of  the  stronger  city.^  Duke  Gian 
Galeazzo  in  his  will  left  Pisa  and  a  few  other  small  places  to 
his  natural  and  eldest  son,  Gabriel  Maria  ;  and  Gabriel  and 
his  mother,  the  beautiful  and  strenuous  Agnese  Mantegazza, 
fearing  the  troubles  under  the  regency  in  Milan,  came  to  Pisa 
for  refuge  in  November  1403.  They  were  very  coldly  received, 
and  the  coldness  turned  to  disaffection  when  Gabriel  Maria 
announced  that  he  wanted  money.  The  citizens  represented 
their  inability  to  pay ;  but  Gabriel  Maria  seized  some  of  their 
leaders,  condemned  them  for  treachery,  and  raised  funds 
by  fines  and  confiscations.-  Disaffection  now  turned  to  hatred. 
In  January  1404  an  exile  from  Pisa  prompted  the  Florentines 
to  make  an  attack  ;  but  he  repented  him  of  his  villainy,  went 
and  informed  the  Ancients  of  Pisa  :  a  guard  was  posted  and 
the  attack  was  averted.^  The  Signor  of  Pisa  was  now  in 
a  dilemma  :  the  citizens  hated  him  mortally ;  the  Florentines 
threatened  to  take  his  city.  He  therefore  cast  himself  on  the 
protection  of  France. 

Boucicaut  knew  that  if  Pisa  and  Leghorn  passed  into 
the  possession  of  Florence  they  would  be  a  thorn  in  the 
side  of  Genoa,  and  formidable  rivals  to  her  trade ;  he 
communicated  his  views  to  the  French  court,  which  gladly 
received  the  overtures  of  Gabriel  Maria.  On  the  15th  April 
1404  Gabriel  swore  fealty  to  the  King  of  France,  signed  a 
treaty  with  Boucicaufs  delegate,  declaring  that  he  held  his 
domains  of  the  French  King  and  would  make  peace  or  war 
only  as  he  pleased,  and  promised  in  symbol  of  his  fealty 
to  send  every  year  a  horse  and  a  falcon.  He  also  agreed  to 
give  Boucicaut  possession  of  Leghorn.  France  on  her  side 
undertook  to  maintain  Gabriel  Maria  at  Pisa  ;  and  the  Signiory 
over  the  city  was  bestowed  by  the  King  on  the  24th  May  on 
his  brother  Louis  of  Orleans,  although  the  administration  was 
to  be  carried  on  by  Boucicaut.*     Pisa  consequently  was  trans- 

^  Tartini,  ii.  468,  472  ;  Ammirato,  iv.  347.  -  Tartini,  ii.  477. 

3  Ibid.  ii.  488.  "  Jarry,  338. 


PISA  825 

ferred  to  the  obedience  of  Pope  Benedict,  and  it  was  at  tliis 
time,  when  the  Pope  was  at  Genoa  with  his  faithful  friend  in 
the  summer  of  1405,  that  the  Venetians  suspected  Boucicaut 
of  meditating  a  covp  de  main  to  put  Benedict  in  possession 
of  Home. 

As  soon  as  the  terms  between  Gabriel  Maria  and  France 
had  been  arranged,  Boucicaut  sent  information  to  Florence 
asking  for  their  congratulation  as  a  friendly  power;  at 
the  same  time  he  seized  the  property  of  some  Florentine 
merchants.  The  Florentines  remonstrated,  sent  an  embassy 
to  France,  and  demanded  the  release  of  the  property ;  but 
they  were  forced  to  make  a  league  with  Pisa  for  four  years  in 
order  to  obtain  release  of  the  property,  which  was  worth 
one  hundred  thousand  florins.^  Gabriel  Maria  now  began  to 
think  that  he  might  make  a  better  bargain  with  the  Floren- 
tines than  with  the  French,  and  Boucicaut  himself  began  to 
take  a  different  view  of  the  acquisition  of  Pisa.  He  held 
Genoa  with  the  aid  of  the  Guelfs,  and  Pisa  was  intensely 
Ghibeline.  Gino  Capponi  came  from  Florence  and  had 
interviews  with  the  Governor,  who  was  sadly  in  need  of  money 
to  aid  Francesco  da  Carrara.  Gabriel  Maria  on  his  side  sent 
word  secretly  to  Maso  degli  Albizzi  of  Florence  that  he  had 
somewhat  to  say  unto  him.  Maso  accordingly  went  fishing 
in  the  Arno  at  Vico  Pisano,  had  a  secret  interview  with 
Gabriel  Maria,  but  was  unable  to  come  to  terms. ^  The  news 
of  these  negotiations  leaked  out  and  became  known  to  the 
Pisans,  who  naturally  wanted  to  have  something  to  say  as  to 
their  own  disposal.  Since  the  death  of  Piero  Gambacorti 
twelve  years  earlier,  the  party  of  the  Raspanti  had  been  in 
power  ;  but  now  a  change  ensued.^  At  this  time  Gabriel  Maria 
was  in  possession  of  Pisa,  and  Marshal  Boucicaut  held  Leghorn. 

Ranieri  Zacci,  the  most  trusted  confidant  of  the  Signor,  now 
turned  traitor  against  his  master,  and  resolved  to  show  Florence 
and  Italy  that  the  Pisans  had  lost  none  of  their  old  valour 
and  reputation.*  The  Signor's  troops  were  driven  back  into 
the  citadel,  and  Gabriel  Maria  himself  was  forced  to  retire  to 
Sarzana  for  safety.  This  popular  rising  upset  the  negotiations 
of  Boucicaut.     The  Pisans  dug  a  deep  ditch  to  separate  the 

^  Tartini,  ii.  490.  ■'  Capponi,  i.  413. 

^  Capponi,  i.  417.  *  Ammirato,  iv.  368. 


326     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

citadel  from  the  city,  and  flung  heaps  of  ordure  and  filth 
in  among  the  garrison ;  they  ravaged  the  country  round. 
Boucicaut  managed  to  throw  a  hundred  men-at-arms  into  the 
Signor's  beleaguered  fortress,  and  tried  to  send  them  provisions 
in  a  vessel.  The  galley  and  the  bark  were,  however,  stopped  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Arno  by  the  Pisans,  who  to  the  number  of 
six  thousand  seized  them,  took  the  crews  prisoners,  and 
drassred  the  banner  of  the  King;  of  France  through  the  mud, 
trampling  and  spitting  on  it.^  This  action  was  '  selon  la 
generale  coustome  qui  est  au  pays  de  dela  de  non  eulx  tenir  longue- 
ment  soiibs  une  Seigneiirie,  quand  Us  se  trouvent  les  plus  forts.''  ^ 
It  was  useless  for  Boucicaut  to  reproach  the  Pisans  with  their 
evil  conduct ;  they  only  answered  him  proudly. 

The  Florentine  ambassadors  now  approached  Gabriel 
Maria  at  Sarzana,  but  he  told  them  he  had  just  sent  his 
mother  off  to  Genoa  to  Boucicaut,  and  must  await  the 
governor's  answer.  The  French  Constable  saw  what  stuff  the 
Pisans  were  made  of,  and  began  to  fear  that  the  conjunc- 
tion of  Pisa  with  Genoa  would  make  the  Ghibeline  party  so 
strong  that  he  would  have  difficulty  in  holding  his  own  city. 
Genoa  was  much  more  valuable  than  Pisa ;  it  would  be  im- 
politic to  risk  the  loss  of  the  more  important  city  for  the  sake 
of  the  less  ;  he  determined  to  be  contented  with  Leghorn  and 
to  give  up  all  thought  of  its  mother  city,  Pisa,  He  came  as 
far  as  Porto  Venere,  where  he  met  the  Pisan  envoys.  They 
attempted  to  palliate  their  recent  conduct,  throwing  the 
blame  on  the  lower  people,  and  offering  Boucicaut  himself  the 
Signiory.  When  he  refused  they  offered  to  become  subject  to 
the  King  of  France,  provided  the  citadel  of  Pisa  and  the  forts 
of  Leghorn  and  Librafatta  were  made  over  to  them;  they 
wanted  to  destroy  the  former  and  to  hold  the  other  two :  in 
fact,  they  wished  the  King  of  France  to  be  their  Signor  merely 
in  name.2  Boucicaut  laughed  at  this  absurd  proposal,  told 
them  that  Gabriel  Maria  was  about  to  sell  the  Signiory  to  the 
Florentines,  who  did  not  love  them,  and  advised  them  to  sub- 
mit themselves  outright  to  the  King  of  France.  They  replied 
that  they  would  never  agree  to  this,  and  the  negotiations  were 
broken  off.  The  coast  was  now  clear  for  the  bargain  to  be 
1  Boucicaut,  327.  ^  Ibid.  320.  '  Ibid.  332. 


PISA  ;J27 

struck    between    Gabriel    Maria,    Florence,    and    Boucicaut. 
Although  the  Governor  did  not  at  first  relish  the  notion  of 
the  Sij^niory,  for  which  homage  had  been  done  to  his  master, 
being  sold  to  the  Florentines,  still  he  acquiesced  on  the  assur- 
ance that  he  should  himself  be  left  in  undisturbed  possession  of 
the  port  of  Leghorn.     Pope  Benedict,  who  had  hope  of  getting 
the  powerful  Republic  to  acknowledge  his  obedience,  backed 
the  Marshal  up  in  this  determination.     Boucicaut  accordingly 
met  the  Florentine  ambassadors  at  Leghorn.     It  was  agreed 
that  he  and  Gabriel  Maria  should  make  over  to  Florence  the 
citadel   and   country  of  Pisa,  that  Boucicaut    should    retain 
Leo-horn,  that  Gabriel  Maria  should  hold  Sarzana  and  one  or 
two  other  small  places,  and   that    Florence   should  pay  two 
thousand  florins.^      Something  appears  also  to  have  been  said 
about  the  spiritual   side  of  the  question.     This  was  on  the 
27th  August.     In  accordance  with  this  treaty  the  Florentine 
Gino  Capponi  was  put  into  possession  of  the  citadel  of  Pisa 
on  the  31st  August  1405. 

Florence  held  Pisa  on  this  occasion  six  days  exactly. 
The  Pisans  themselves  had  been  no  parties  to  the  treaty,  but 
they  lost  no  time  in  showing  that  they  were  to  be  reckoned 
with  in  its  execution.  The  citadel  was  strong,  but  the  garrison 
was  negligent ;  the  Pisans  discovered  a  postern  gate  which 
was  weakly  guarded  ;  they  entered,  surprised  the  Florentines, 
laid  waste  the  place  with  fire  and  sword,  excepting  only  the 
towers  which  they  preserved  to  guard  the  city.  Florence  had 
lost  Pisa  and  had  only  herself  to  blame.  She  let  slip  no  time 
in  attempting  to  repair  her  loss,  and  the  Pisans  began  to  look 
about  them  for  allies.  The  Florentines  refused  to  acknowledge 
them  except  as  rebels  :  when  the  Pisans  attempted  an  embassy, 
they  received  a  reply  addressed  to  the  '  Captain  and  Ancients 
of  mir  city  of  Pisa.'  -  The  Pisans  sent  ambassadors  to  King 
Ladislas  asking  him  to  take  the  city  under  his  protection  ;  but 
he  had  designs  on  Rome,  and  had  agreed  with  the  Florentines 
that  he  would  not  interfere  with  them  if  they  did  not  interfere 
with  him  ;  he  therefore  declined  the  invitation  of  the  Pisans.^ 
During  the  early  part  of  the  winter  the  Florentines  gained  a 
little  ground  through  the  aid  of  Ludovico  de'  Megliorati  and 

1  Boucicaut,  339.  -  Capponi,  i.  417-  '  Tartini,  ii.  543. 


328     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

Sforza  Attendolo ;  they  also  bought  one  or  two  castles  from 
traitors,  and  captured  a  galley  loaded  with  grain  which  was 
coming  to  Pisa  from  Sicily. 

In  the  spring  of  1406  the  Florentines  took  the  field  with 
fifteen  hundred  lances,  thirteen  hundred  foot  soldiers,  and 
other  troops.  They  were  now  in  earnest,  and  it  was  to  be  a 
fight  to  the  death  between  them  and  their  ancient  rivals. 
The  Pisans  were  on  their  side  ready  to  endure  everything 
rather  than  submit  to  hated  Florence.  Sforza  was  despatched 
at  the  end  of  February  to  capture  the  strong  post  of  Crispino, 
five  miles  from  Pisa ;  the  Pisans  thought  to  surprise  him,  but 
the  condottiere  general  defeated  them  with  great  loss.  Maso 
degli  Albizzi  and  Gino  Capponi  took  supreme  command  of 
the  Florentine  forces,  while  Giovanni  Gambacorti  commanded 
in  the  besieged  city.  The  two  delegates  from  the  Ten  pro- 
vided an  adequatecommissariat  for  their  troops  by  proclaiming 
a  free  market,  exempt  from  all  tolls ;  but  the  Pisans  were 
reduced  to  frightful  straits.  A  convoy  of  their  grain  ships  was 
defeated  and  captured ;  the  useless  mouths,  old  men,  women, 
and  children,  had  to  be  turned  out  of  the  city,  some  of  them 
making  their  way  to  Lucca,  others  perishing  under  the  city 
walls,  while  the  scarcity  daily  increased  ;  inside  the  besieged 
town  men  ate  grass  and  roots  to  sustain  life.  The  Florentines 
erected  two  bastions  below  the  city,  one  on  each  side  of  the 
river,  which  effectually  stopped  the  entry  of  supplies.  They 
attempted  to  join  these  bastions  with  a  bridge,  but  in  May 
there  came  a  heavy  rain,  the  river  rose,  the  Pisans  threw 
branches  and  logs  into  the  river,  and  the  force  of  the  water 
and  the  rubbish  was  too  much  for  the  bridge,  which  was 
carried  away.  The  Pisans  rushed  out  joyfully,  thinking  to 
capture  one  bastion ;  but  the  intrepid  Sforza  fearlessly  crossed 
the  swollen  stream  in  a  frail  bark,  took  command  of  the  troops, 
and  drove  off  the  discomfited  citizens,  who  got  back  just  in 
time  to  prevent  their  enemies  from  entering  with  them  within 
the  walls.  On  the  night  of  the  9th  June  an  escalade  was 
tried  under  a  Florentine  exile,  Papi  da  Calcinaia,  eager  by 
some  deed  of  valour  to  purchase  his  return  to  his  beloved 
home ;  but  the  Pisans  rushed  to  the  wall,  repulsed  their 
assailants,  and  the  brave  exile,  locked  in  the  arms  of  an  enemy, 


PISA  329 

fell  within  and  was  killed.  His  corpse  next  day  was  fastened 
on  the  back  of  an  ass  and  carried  round  the  city  to  encourage 
the  besieged.  Quarrels  broke  out  in  the  army  of  the  besiegers 
between  Sforza  and  another  condottiere  general,  Tartaglia,  and 
these  were  with  difficulty  adjusted,  and  impeded  operations. 

All  hope  of  carrying  Pisa  by  storm  was  given  up,  and 
the  city  was  straitly  besieged,  w'hen  one  day  signs  of  joy  and 
bonfires  were  observed  :  the  banners  of  the  Duke  of  Burgundy 
were  hung  out  on  the  towers  and  his  arms  displayed  on  the 
gates,  a  herald  issued  from  the  city  and  announced  that  Pisa 
belonged  to  the  Duke,  and  that  all  the  assailants  were  to 
depart.  Boucicaut  had  no  part  in  this  absurd  interference  of 
the  French ;  the  Florentines  were  disgusted ;  they  seized  the 
herald,  bound  his  hands,  and  threw  him  into  the  Arno.  Even 
thus,  however,  the  Pisans  drew  some  advantage  from  the  cir- 
cumstance, for  some  of  the  besieging  troops,  fearful  of  offending 
the  French,  withdrew  from  the  siege.  The  misery  and  hunger 
in  the  city,however,daily  increased,  and  in  September,  Giovanni 
Gambacorti  began  to  temporise.  His  envoys  came  out  fast- 
ing, ate  their  fill,  and  wanted  to  take  bread  back  with  them. 
'  Eat  as  much  as  you  like,"  they  were  told,  '  but  you  shall  not 
take  back  with  you  enough  to  last  you  a  moment  longer.' 
Bread  and  flour  were  all  exhausted  ;  there  was  nothing  left  in 
Pisa  but  a  little  spice  and  sugar  and  three  lean  cows. 
Giovanni  Gambacorti  was  obliged  to  capitulate.  But  he  was 
not  beaten  ;  he  desired  to  save  Pisa  from  being  sacked.  Gino 
Capponi  was  ready  to  allow*  honourable  terms.  It  was  pro- 
posed that  Pisa  and  all  the  fortresses  should  be  surrendered, 
that  the  islands  of  Capraia,  Gorgona,  and  Giglio  should  be 
given  to  Florence,  and  that  fifty  thousand  florins  should  be 
paid  to  Giovanni  Gambacorti,  who  was  to  retain  the  signiory 
of  Bagno  and  to  be  received  in  Florence  as  a  friend  of  the 
city,  exempt  from  all  dues  and  taxes.  The  Florentines  mur- 
mured at  first,  but  only  one  white  bean  was  given  against  the 
acceptance  of  these  proposals.  Hostages  were  to  be  given  to 
the  gallant  defender  of  Pisa  for  the  execution  of  the  terms. 
The  agreement  was  ratified  on  the  8th  October.^ 

On  the  following  day  the  conquerors  entered  Pisa.  Giovanni 
^  Ammirato,  iv.  380  et  seq.  ;  Capponi,  i.  419  et  seq. 


330     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

Gambacorti    had   kept    the    negotiations  a   secret   from    the 
citizens.     He  himself  met  the  Florentine  army  at  the  gate  of 
San  Marco,  delivered  to  Gino  Capponi  a  dart  in  sign  of  sur- 
render of  the  city,  '  the  most  beautiful  jewel  of  Italy,'  and  the 
keys  of  the  city  were  given  up.     As  the  army  made  its  way 
round  the  city,  the  men  and  women  of  Pisa,  with  pinched, livid 
faces  and  sunken  eyes,  stared  at  them  ;  and  when  food  was 
thrown  to  them  they  rushed  at  it  and  devoured  it  like  beasts, 
so  that  some  of  them  died ;    and  the  children  asked  if  there 
would  be  anything  for  lunch.     Pisa  was  spared  the  horrors  of 
a  sack  ;  but  a  Florentine  flag,  which  they  had  taken  three  years 
previously,  was  elevated  in  sign  of  their  overthrow.      Many 
of  the  most  important  citizens  had  escaped  to  Sicily  and  to 
Naples.     Gino  Capponi  addressed  the  hunger-stricken  Pisans 
who  remained,    enlarging   on    their   many    villainies   toward 
Florence  for  some  years  past ;  and,  after  receiving  their  heart- 
felt thanks  that  the  city  was  not  sacked,  he  was  elected  Captain 
of  Pisa  for  the  next  eight  months.     Great  were  the  rejoicings 
in  Florence :  the  acquisition   of  Pisa  was  announced  to  the 
whole  of  Italy  ;  the  celebrated  volume  of  Justinian's  Pandects, 
which  the   Pisans  had  brought  from  Anialfi  three  centuries 
earlier,  and  other  venerated  relics,  were  carried  off  to  Florence, 
just  as  Napoleon  four  centuries  later  deported  treasures  to  Paris. 
There    was   peace    at    last   between    the    two    rival    cities. 
The  Florentines  had  made  a  solitude,  and  called  it  a  peace. 
The  wondrous  buildings  of  Pisa,  which    made   the   city,  as 
Giovanni  Gambacorti  had  said,  the  jewel  of  Italy,  still  re- 
mained in  undiminished  grandeur,  but  the  trade  and  navy  of 
the  city  were  ruined,  the  population  was  decimated,  the  houses 
were  in   ruins  and  desolate.     Anything  which  would  bring  a 
little  wealth  to  the  place  was  welcome  to  the  mercantile  men 
of  Florence.     When  Baldassare  Cossa  asked  that  the  coming 
council  of  the  cardinals  should  be  held  at  Pisa,  his  proposition 
was  welcomed.      The  Duomo  was  one  of  the  wonders  of  the 
world  :    where  could   so   fitting   an   edifice    for    the    meeting 
of  an  oecumenical  council  be  found  ?     The  city  was  divided 
into  two  parts  by  the  river  Arno  :  if  the  rival  Popes  appeared, 
they  would  be  separated  by  a  natural   and  easily  defensible 
barrier.     The  vacant   houses   would  provide   accommodation 


PISA  331 

for  all  tiie  prelates  of  Christendom,  Their  affluence  would 
bring  wealth  and  might  resuscitate  the  city.  Florence,  there- 
fore, willingly  gave  her  consent  that  the  coming  council  should 
be  held  at  Pisa,  and  the  fact  that  the  city  was  Florentine 
reassured  those  who  dreaded  the  overweening  influence  of  the 
French. 

The  importance  of  the  Council  of  Pisa  in  the  struggle 
against  the  claims  of  the  Popes  cannot  be  overestimated.  The 
Holy  Roman  Church  is  based  on  tradition.  At  the  Council 
of  Trent,  more  than  a  hundred  years  later,  it  was  held  that 
*  the  traditions  handed  down  from  the  Apostolic  age  and  pre- 
served in  the  Church  are  entitled  to  as  much  regard  as  the 
doctrines  and  precepts  which  the  inspired  authors  have  com- 
mitted to  writing.'  ^  The  Popes  trace  themselves  up  in  lineal 
succession  through  the  Bishops  of  Rome  to  Saint  Peter  ;  and 
on  Peter  our  Lord  Himself  declared  that  He  built  His  Church. 
Hence  it  follows  that  faithfully  preserved  tradition  is  the  best 
guarantee  that  the  Church  of  Rome  is  really  and  truly  the 
Church  of  Christ.  Nowadays  reason  sets  itself  up  in  opposi- 
tion to  tradition.  But  the  claims  of  untrammelled  reason  are 
very  modern.  Aforetime  every  one  sought  the  support  of 
authority.  At  the  time  of  the  Reformation  no  one  thought 
of  appealing  simply  to  reason.  By  that  time,  and  indeed  for 
some  centuries  before,  the  tradition  of  the  Church  had  for  the 
most  part  hardened  down  into  the  canon  law,  which  was  the 
great  depository  of  the  rulings  of  the  Popes,  even  as  the  Pope 
himself  was  the  visible  representative  of  divine  authority  and 
the  only  safe  continuator  of  tradition  and  of  sacred  law.  The 
revolt  of  Luther  against  the  Papacy  was  little  else  than  the 
conflict  of  the  Bible  with  the  canon  law ;  the  Protestants  did 
not  appeal  to  reason  against  the  traditions  of  the  Fathers, 
they  appealed  to  the  Bible,  to  the  Word  of  God.  But  at  the 
beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century,  in  the  days  of  the  Council 
of  Pisa,  the  time  was  not  yet  ripe  for  such  an  appeal  to  the 
Inspired  Word  ;  the  reading  of  the  Bible  was  still  prohibited 
to  the  multitude.^  But  the  manifold  corruption  of  the  Church, 
and  the  loss  of  respect  for  its  Head  engendered  by  the  Great 
Schism,  brought  about  a  revolt  against  authority  as  em- 
^  Robertson,  Charles  the  Fifth,  ii.  i6o.  *  Hefele,  vi.  984. 


332     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

bodied  in  the  Pope.  The  great  councils  were  convoked,  among 
other  reasons,  to  reform  the  Church  in  its  Head  and  its 
members ;  and  the  great  councils  set  themselves  up  above  the 
Pope  and  claimed  an  authority  superior  to  his.  They  failed 
to  work  a  reform  in  the  Church,  so  that  the  Reformation  and 
the  Counter-Reformation  became  necessary ;  but  they  broke 
in  on  the  authority  of  the  Pope  and  tarnished  the  divinity 
which  hedged  him  round  ;  and  thus  they  made  the  work  easier 
for  the  Protestant  reformers  of  the  sixteenth  century.  Pre- 
monitions of  the  appeal  to  the  Bible  as  the  ultimate  standard 
of  orthodoxy  are  contained  in  the  revolt  of  the  Theological 
Faculty  of  the  University  of  Paris  and  in  their  endeavour  to 
set  themselves  up  above  the  canon  lawyers ;  it  is  this  which 
renders  the  works  of  Jean  Gerson  of  such  supreme  importance 
at  this  period.  It  was  by  such  arguments  as  he  and  his  old 
tutor,  Pierre  d'Ailly,  adduced  that  the  existence  of  the  Council 
of  Pisa  could  most  readily  and  successfully  be  justified;  for 
that  Council  proceeded  on  the  assumptions  which  the  Councils 
of  Constance  and  Basel  subsequently  formulated.  The  great 
importance  of  the  Council  of  Pisa  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  was 
a  patent  revolt  against  the  authority  of  the  Pope  ;  it  did  not 
set  up  the  standard  of  reason  against  tradition,  but  neverthe- 
less it  constituted  a  revolt  against  that  supreme  authority 
which  every  good  Christian  had  hitherto  recognised.  It  was 
in  this  way  a  decisive  step  toward  the  emancipation  of  the 
intellect  of  man  from  the  so-called  trammels  of  authority  and 
tradition.  The  rise  of  the  conciliar  spirit  has  been  well  and 
clearly  explained  by  an  American  writer.  He  says : — '  A 
group  of  earnest  and  able  men,  of  whom  John  Gerson  of  the 
University  of  Paris  is  the  best  known,  began  to  advance  ideas 
which,  though  they  broke  with  the  special  form  which  the 
unity  of  the  Church  had  been  assuming  in  the  headship  of  the 
Pope,  did  not  break  with  the  real  spirit  of  that  unity,  and 
which  consequently  furnished  a  more  solid  doctrinal  founda- 
tion for  their  plan  of  reformation  than  was  possible  for  the 
wilder  ideas  of  others,  and  commanded  general  approval  for 
it.  According  to  these  theories  the  Church  universal  is  superior 
to  the  Pope.  It  may  elect  him  if  the  cardinals  fail  to  do  so  ; 
it  may  depose   one   whom  the  cardinals  have  elected.      The 


PISA  333 

Pope  is  an  officer  of  the  Church,  and,  if  he  abuses  his  office, 
he  may  be  treated  as  an  enemy,  as  a  temporal  prince  would  be 
in  a  similar  case.      The  highest  expression  of  the  unity  and 
power  of  this  Church  universal  is  a  General  Council.     This  is 
superior  to  the  Pope,   may    meet    legitimately    without    his 
summons,  and  he  must  obey  its  decisions.     The  first  attempt 
to  carry  into  practice  the  appeal  from  the  Pope  to  a  General 
Council,  and  so  to  end  the  Schism,  was  in  the  Council  of  Pisa.'  ^ 
When  the  clergy  from  the   principal    countries  of  Europe 
began  to  assemble  at  Pisa,  the   city  had  not  yet  recovered 
from  that   fearful    baptism   of  fire,  in  which  'almost    every 
house   had    been  smashed  or  riddled  with  gun-stones  hurled 
from  bombards  and  catapults  and  the  place  had  been  brought 
to  wellnigh  total  ruin ' ;  ^  but  still  it  afforded  great  convenience 
for  visitors.     '  In  the  city,'  said  the  Abbe  of  Saint-Maxence  in 
a  letter  to  the  Bishop  of  Poitiers,  dated  the  4th  May  1409, 
'  there  is   great  abundance  of  provisions,  which    are  sold  at 
tolerably  reasonable  prices,  and  would  be  still  cheaper  were  it 
not  for  the  duties  levied  on  them.     And  in  my  opinion  the 
city  of  Pisa  is  one  of  the  notable  cities  of  the  world  :  there  is 
a  river  running  through  it,  which  debouches  in  the  sea  at  a 
league  distance  ;  and  by  this  river  great  ships  bringing  wealth 
of  all  kinds  can  come  to  the  city ;  and  all  round  are  vines, 
wheat,  and  a  large  number  of  meadows.     We  are  right  well 
lodged.     There  are,  moreover,  a  large  number  of  men-at-arms 
present    for   the   preservation    of  the    said   town    which    the 
Florentines  have  taken  by  force  of  arms  from  the  Pisans ;  and 
these  same  Florentines  have  transported  a  great  number  out  of 
Pisa,  so   as   to    prevent   any  treason,  and   they  are   now    in 
Florence  to  the  number  of  two  thousand,  and  they  have  to 
show  themselves  twice  a  day  at  a  certain  fixed  place  to  the 
governors  of  Florence,  on  pain  of  losing  their  lives.'  ^     Four 
or  five  thousand  Pisans  had  joined  Ladislas  of  Naples,  so  that 
there    was    plenty    of    accommodation,    notwithstanding   the 
Florentines'  garrison,  for  rebuilding  had  gone  on  apace.     Still 
it  was  evident  that  the  resources  of  the  city  would  be  taxed  to 
the  uttermost.     '  Lodgings  were  bespoken  at  Pisa,  as  a  great 

1  Adams,  Civilisation  during  the  Middle  Ages,  404. 

2  Wylie,  iii.  372.  *  Monstrelet,  153. 


334     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

multitude  of  visitors  was  expected,  and  it  was  a  question  of 
sending  on  provisions  beforehand,  in  view  of  the  certainty  of 
serious  scarcity.'  ^ 

The  assemblage  of  representatives  of  the  lay  and  the 
spiritual  worlds  at  Pisa  was  indeed  imposing.  The  Kings  of 
England,  France,  Bohemia,  Poland,  Portugal,  and  Cyprus 
were  represented  ;  so  too  were  the  Dukes  of  Burgundy, 
Brabant,  and  Anjou,  of  Austria,  Lorraine,  and  Holland,  and 
the  two  Dukes  of  Bavaria  ;  the  Count  of  Savoy,  the  Marquess 
of  Este,  the  Markgraf  of  Brandenburg,  the  Landgraf  of 
Thuringia,  and  many  other  German  lords  and  princes.  In 
fact,  as  the  Canons  of  Linkoeping  said  later  in  the  year,  with 
the  exception  of  tlie  Scandinavian  countries,  almost  every 
kingdom  of  Christendom  sent  its  ambassadors  to  Pisa.^ 
There  were,  however,  some  notable  monarchs  and  other 
personages  who  were  not  represented  at  the  Council  of  Pisa. 
Many  were  late  in  appearing ;  even  the  King  of  France  was  at 
first  only  represented  by  the  Bishop  of  Meaux,  the  King  of 
Sicily,  Louis  of  Anjou,  by  the  Bishop  of  Gap,  and  the  King  of 
England  by  a  cavalier,  a  doctor  and  a  clerk  who  had  come 
straight  from  the  Diet  at  Frankfurt.^ 

The  ecclesiastics  came  in  throngs.  There  were  eighteen 
cardinals  in  Pisa  on  the  day  before  the  Council  opened.^ 
Four  patriarchs  attended,  the  foremost  being  Simon  de 
Cramaud,  Patriarch  of  Alexandria.  Ten  archbishops  were 
present,  seven  of  them  being  Frenchmen ;  ^  and  twelve  others 
sent  their  deputies  or  proctors,  among  these  being  the 
Electors  of  Cologne  and  Mainz,  and  the  Archbishops  of 
Canterbury  and  York.  Guy  de  Roye,  the  Archbishop  of 
Reims,  had  also  meant  to  be  there.  He  was  an  ardent 
supporter  of  Pope  Benedict,  had  protested  against  the 
subtraction  of  obedience,  and  had  had  his  temporalities 
seized  rather  than  subscribe  to  the  half-tenth  levied  on  the 
clergy.  Had  he  reached  Pisa  he  was  like  to  have  disturbed 
the  unanimity  of  the  Council.  He  set  out  with  the  Cardinal 
de  Bar,  the  cousin  of  the  King  of  France,  and  the  two  arrived 
within  two  days'  journey  of  Genoa.       At  Voltri,  however,  a 

^  Wylie,  iii.  361.  *  Valois,  iv.  76,  note.  *  Religieu.x,  iv.  20S. 

*  Mansi,  xxvii.  331.  6  Lenfant,  i.  352. 


PISA  335 

dispute  arose  between  the  village  forrier  and  one  of  their  suite, 
and  the  farrier  was  killed.  The  villagers  immediately  rose  in 
wrath  and  put  the  murderer  to  death  ;  they  rushed  to  the 
Cardinars  hotel  and  massacred  five  more  of  his  men  ;  they 
were  about  to  pursue  their  vengeance  further,  when  the 
Archbishop  appeared  at  one  of  the  windows  and  tried  witli  fair 
words  to  calm  their  passion ;  but  an  arrow  pierced  his  heart, 
and  he  fell  back  without  uttering  another  word.  The  men  of 
Voltri  were  on  the  point  of  firing  the  house,  meaning  to  burn 
all  therein,  when  a  courier  of  the  Governor  of  Genoa  appeared 
on  the  scene  and  stopped  the  emeute.  Boucicaut  buried  the 
Archbishop  in  Genoa,  put  to  death  all  who  had  taken  part  in 
the  rising,  and  levelled  the  hotel  with  the  ground.^ 

Seventy  bishops  were  at  the  Council,  and  eighty  more  were 
represented.  The  heads  of  seventy  monasteries  were  present  in 
person,  and  one  hundred  and  twenty  appeared  by  deputy.- 
Minerbetti  gives  the  number  of  abbots  as  three  hundred,  and 
adds  that  there  were  two  hundred  masters  of  theology.^  The 
generals  of  the  Jacobins,  the  Cordeliers,  the  Carmelites,  and  the 
Augustinians,  were  flanked  by  the  Grand  Master  of  Rhodes,  the 
Prior  General  of  the  Knights  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  and  the 
Procurer  General  of  the  Teutonic  Knights.  The  Universities 
of  France,  Italy,  England,  and  the  Holy  Roman  Empire  were 
all  represented.  More  than  five  hundred  ecclesiastics  were 
present  at  the  council  at  the  beginning  of  June,*  and  of 
these  at  least  one-third  or  two-fifths  w^ere  Frenchmen.^  As 
they  assembled  for  the  opening  day,  the  question  most 
anxiously  debated  by  those  who  had  the  success  of  the  Council 
at  heart  was  the  attitude  of  the  rival  pontiffs.  Would  they 
recognise  the  council  ?  Would  they  appear,  or  would  they 
send  proctors  ?  Would  these  proctors  be  fully  empowered  ? 
These  were  the  questions  the  resolution  of  which  had  much  to 
do  with  the  termination  of  the  Great  Schism,  and  therefore 
with  the  success  or  failure  of  the  Council  of  Pisa. 

Jean  Gerson  was  unable  to  attend  the  Council  of  Pisa.  He 
was  the  Chancellor  of  the  University  of  Paris,  he  was  Professor 
of  Theology,  he  was  Cure  of  Saint-Jean-en-Greve  :  his  manifold 

^  Religieux,  iv.  206.  -  Lenfant,  i.  353  et  seq.  *  Tartini,  ii.  605. 

*  Finke,  283.  *  Valois,  iv.  77. 


336     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

duties  detained  him.  But  he  had  thrown  himself  heart  and 
soul  into  the  movement.  His  work  on  the  Unity  of  the 
Church  has  already  been  mentioned.  When  the  English 
embassy,  with  Robert  Hallam,  Bishop  of  Salisbury,  at  its 
head,  passed  through  Paris  on  their  way  to  Pisa,  Gerson 
harangued  them  on  the  text:  'Then  shall  the  children  of 
Judah  and  the  children  of  Israel  be  gathered  together,  and 
appoint  themselves  one  head,  and  they  shall  come  up  out  of 
the  land  :  for  great  shall  be  the  day  of  Jezreel.'  He  dwelt  on 
his  old  theme,  that  there  was  one  head  to  the  Church,  even 
Christ ;  he  reminded  them  of  the  efforts  in  behalf  of  a  council 
made  by  the  Universities  of  Paris  and  Oxford,  by  Henry  of 
Langenstein  of  blessed  memory,  and  by  the  great  and  devout 
Conrad  of  Gelnhausen  ;  he  enumerated  instances  in  which  it  was 
permissible  to  depose  a  Pope,  those  which  had  been  given  by 
Pierre  d'Ailly  in  his  New  Year's  Day  sermon  ;  he  was  earnest 
that  the  work  should  have  a  permanent  and  not  a  mere 
temporary  effect.^  His  chief  assistance  to  the  Council  was 
given,  however,  by  his  tractate  on  its  power  of  deposition,  *■  De 
aiiferibilitate  Papae  ah  Ecclesial'  The  argument  in  this  was 
even  more  pronounced  than  heretofore.  Christ  is  the  Head,  the 
Bridegroom  of  the  Church  ;  His  Spirit,  the  Holy  Ghost,  is  her 
life  ;  therefore  Christ  and  the  Church  are  inseparable.  But  it 
is  otherwise  with  Chrisfs  earthly  representative,  the  Pope,  who 
is  not  inseparable  from  the  Church ;  he  may  resign  as  Clement 
the  Fifth  had  done ;  his  vows  are  of  no  effect,  his  marriage  with 
the  Church  becomes  a  nullity  if  it  stands  in  the  way  of 
her  salvation ;  the  welfare  of  the  Church,  her  peace  and  unity, 
are  the  infallible  touchstone.  Churchly  offices  and  priestly 
dignities  are  but  ordained  for  the  good  of  the  Church;  and 
just  as  the  Pope  can  separate  himself  from  the  Church,  so  can 
the  Church  separate  herself  from  the  Pope.  The  occasions 
which  justify  such  separation  are  those  which  he  and  Pierre 
d'Ailly  had  before  pointed  out.  Shall  a  private  person  be 
entitled  to  defend  himself  from  the  Pope  who  attacks  his  life 
or  chastity,  shall  he  be  free  to  throw  the  Pope  into  the  river  in 
such  a  case,  and  shall  the  same  right  be  denied  to  the  Church 
itself.''     According  to  Aristotle,  every  free  community  has  the 

^  Schwab,  226. 


PISA  837 

right  to  indicate  to  its  prince  tlie  path  in  wliich  he  should 
tread,  and  if  he  refuses  to  walk  therein,  it  can  depose  him  ; 
and  shall  not  the  same  right  inhere  in  the  Church,  before 
which  even  Peter  justified  himself?  The  Church,  or  the 
council  repi'esenting  the  Church,  has  the  right  to  judge,  and 
her  judgment  is  authoritative,  the  heretic  or  schismatic  loses 
his  office  by  reason  of  her  judgment,  even  though  he  be  not 
really  heretic  or  schismatic ;  the  canon  law  has  provided  for 
such  cases;  the  Church  judges  by  the  outward  signs,  and 
judges  not  by  the  hearts  of  men.  Therefore  he  who  is 
suspected,  and  neglects  to  appear  and  defend  himself,  may 
rightly  be  condemned ;  and  the  same  right  of  condemnation 
exists  where  the  cardinals  are  unable  to  satisfy  the  Church 
who  is  the  canonically  elected  Pope.  This  is  the  case  in  the 
present  Schism,  and  justifies  the  measures  taken  against  both 
Popes.  The  Church  to  be  perfect,  says  Gerson  in  conclusion, 
needs  one  Pope  as  Christ's  representative ;  the  Council  of 
Pisa  has  assembled  under  divine  inspiration  ;  it  has  sufficient 
authority  to  depose  both  existing  Popes  ;  it  can  proceed  to  elect 
a  third,  who  shall  be  the  indubitable  Pope  to  be  acknowledged 
and  obeyed  by  all,^  If  there  were  a  risk  of  such  universal 
recognition  not  following,  then  Gerson  counselled  the  abandon- 
ment of  any  new  election,  and  the  determination  to  recognise 
in  the  future  as  sole  Pope  whichever  of  the  two  present  rivals 
should  outlive  the  other.  They  were  both  old  men :  the 
Great  Schism  had  already  lasted  thirty  years;  the  further 
delay  could  not  be  long. 

The  council,  however,  was  in  no  mood  for  any  such  half- 
hearted conciliatory  scheme ;  they  were  ready  to  follow  the 
bolder  measure  ;  they  neglected  the  warning.  Those  who  met  at 
Pisa  had  resolved  beforehand  what  they  were  to  do.  Neutrality 
reigned  through  the  greater  part  of  Italy ;  even  in  Rome  the 
Senator  had  forbidden  the  citizens  to  mention  the  name  of 
Gregory  at  the  Feast  of  the  Assumption.  '  The  Synod  of  Pisa, 
says  the  German  iiistorian,  'according  to  Catholic  principles, 
was  from  the  outset  an  act  of  open  revolt  against  the  Pope. 
That  such  an  essentially  revolutionary  assembly  should  decree 
itself  competent  to  re-establish  order,  and  was  able  to  command 

'  Schwab,  250-56. 


338     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

so  much  consideration,  was  only  rendered  possible  by  the  eclipse 
of  the  Catholic  doctrine  regarding  the  primacy  of  Saint  Peter 
and  the  monarchical  constitution  of  the  Church,  occasioned  by 
the  Schism.' 1  '  The  Fathers  at  Pisa,'  says  the  French  historian 
of  the  Great  Schism,  '  had  in  reality  only  one  principle  of 
action,  and  that  for  a  good  reason  ;  with  certain  exceptions, 
those  alone  had  answered  the  appeal  of  the  cardinals  who 
were  resolved  to  follow  them.'^ 

The  council  had  been  convoked  for  Lady  Day ;  and 
accordingly  on  the  morning  of  the  25th  March  1409  the 
Fathers  met  at  the  Church  of  Saint  Martin,^  the  large  square 
church  near  the  water  fountain,  south  of  the  Arno.  Here, 
arrayed  in  their  albs  and  copes  and  crowned  with  white  mitres, 
the  cardinals  and  prelates  then  in  Pisa  formed  into  procession, 
and  solemnly  wended  their  way  across  the  wooden  bridge,  the 
Ponte  Vecchio,  which  had  been  renewed  twenty -five  years 
before,^  and  which  stood  where  the  Ponte  Mezzo  now  spans 
the  rushing  yellow  Arno.  It  was  a  very  different  procession 
from  that  which  the  Pisans  had  wonderingly  seen  pass  over 
the  same  bridge  two  and  a  half  years  earlier,  when  the 
Florentine  troops  to  their  amazement  entered  the  city  which 
had  been  conquered  by  famine  but  not  by  foe.  The  route  of 
the  procession  brought  them  close  to  the  Borgo,  the  busiest 
part  of  the  city ;  they  passed  the  flat-roofed  basilica  of  San 
Michele  with  its  strange  Gothic  facade,  and  continued  their 
way  along  the  Via  del  Borgo,  until  they  turned  off  to  the 
Piazza  degli  Anziani.  Facing  them,  as  they  entered  the 
Piazza,  stood  the  '  orribile  torre,''  that  ill-famed  Tower  of 
Hunger  in  which  Count  Ugolino  had  been  a  hundred  and 
twenty  years  earlier  immured  and  starved  to  death  by  the 
Ghibehne  Archbishop. 

'  Breve  pertugio  dentro  dalla  muda, 
La  qual  per  me  ha  il  titol  della  Fame.'  ^ 

Crossing  the  square  diagonally,  the  procession  passed  the 
little  Romanesque  Church  of  San  Sisto,  an  unpretentious  little 

1  Pastor,  i.  178.  ^  Valois,  iv.  80. 

»  Monstrelet,  150.  *  A.S.I,  vi.  934. 

*  Dante,  Inf.  xxxiii.  22. 


PISA  339 

edifice  in  which  some  of  the  less  important  mpetinn;s  of  the 
council  were  to  be  held  ;  and  then,  skirting  the  Archbishop  s 
Palace,  they  reached  that  marvellous  north-west  corner  of  the 
city  where  are  grouped  those  four  buildings  which  are  the 
pride  of  Pisa  and  the  envy  of  other  cities.  The  Cathedral 
had  been  consecrated  nearly  three  hundred  years  before,  but 
its  bell-tower  had  been  completed  only  in  1350;  it  was  a 
century  and  a  half  since  Nicolo  Pisano  had  executed  the 
sculptures  of  the  men  struggling  with  demons  on  the  baptistery 
pulpit ;  more  than  two  centuries  had  elapsed  since  Archbishop 
Ubaldo  de'  Lanfranchi  had  brought  fifty-three  ship-loads  of 
earth  from  Jerusalem  to  the  Campo  Santo  that  the  Pisans 
might  rest  in  holy  ground.  The  Cathedral  at  Pisa  'is  the 
noblest  monument  which  Christendom  contains  of  the  aspira- 
tions and  activity  of  the  mediaeval  Church.  Nowhere  is  a 
more  vivid  impression  gained  of  the  magnificent  sobriety  and 
earnestness  of  the  Italian  citizens  than  when  first  the  Cathedral 
of  Pisa  strikes  upon  the  eye.  Away  from  the  Arno,  with  its 
throng  of  ships  and  noise  of  sailors,  away  from  the  Exchano-e 
where  merchants  congregate,  away  from  the  Piazza  where  the 
people  meet  to  manage  the  affairs  of  their  city,  away  at  the 
extremest  verge  of  the  city,  where  there  is  nought  that  can 
hinder  the  full  force  of  their  impressiveness,  the  Pisans  raised 
the  noble  buildings  which  tell  the  sincerity  of  their  piety  and 
the  greatness  of  their  municipal  life.  The  stately  simplicity 
of  the  vast  basilica,  which  was  consecrated  in  1118,  shows 
how  the  rich  fancy  of  the  Lombards  enriched  without 
destroying  the  purity  and  severity  of  the  Roman  forms. 
The  graceful  proportions  of  the  baptistery,  which  was  begun 
in  1153,  testify  the  increased  freedom  of  handling  among 
the  Pisan  architects ;  and  the  Campanile  is  a  memorial  of 
their  determined  spirit  and  joyous  resoluteness  in  facing 
unforeseen  difficulties.  The  exquisite  Gothic  cloister  of 
Giovanni  Pisano  surrounding  the  peaceful  burying-ground 
of  their  forefathers,  tells  of  the  poetic  seriousness  of  the 
Pisan  people  and  the  freshness  of  their  architects  to  receive 
new  impulses."*^  In  the  foregoing  words  has  the  Enghsh 
Church  historian  described  the  scene  which  burst  on  the 
*  Creighton,  i.  235. 


340     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

view  of  the  great  procession  as  it  approached  the  Cathedral 
on  Lady  Day  1409. 

Due  preparations  for  the  vast  assemblage  had  been  made  in 
the  Cathedral.  On  a  long  seat,  on  the  level  of  the  great  altar 
and  in  front  of  the  choir,  sat  the  Cardinal-Bishops,  facing  the 
nave,  with  Guy  de  Maillesec,  the  old  Bishop  of  Poitiers,  and 
Cardinal  of  Palestriiia,  at  their  head  :  he  had  been  raised  to 
the  college  by  Gregory  the  Eleventh  before  the  Great  Schism 
began.  The  Cardinal-Priests  sat  on  their  right,  the  senior 
being  the  Cardinal  de  Thury,  Some  '  domestic  prophet' had 
foretold  to  this  Burgundian  cardinal  that  he  would  one  day  be 
Pope :  at  the  death  of  Clement  the  Seventh  he  had  tried  a 
little  judicious  bribery;  and  now  again  he  was  lavish  of  his 
wine  and  gifts  to  the  other  cardinals,  but  he  got  little  by  it. 
If  he  could  have  driven  Pope  Benedict  to  resign  he  would 
have  had  a  better  chance  of  election  in  France  than  here  in 
Pisa,  where  he  failed  to  appreciate  the  influence  of  Cardinal 
Baldassare  Cossa.  On  the  left  of  the  choir  sat  the  Cardinal- 
Deacons,  their  senior  being  the  Cardinal  de  Saluces,  who  had 
been  raised  to  the  purple  in  1383,  and  who  at  the  death  of 
Pope  Clement  had  proposed  to  end  the  Schism  by  the  universal 
recognition  of  Boniface  the  Ninth.  Behind  the  cardinals  as 
they  sat  in  solemn  conclave  was  the  great  picture  of  Christ 
painted  by  Cimabue,  At  the  sides  were  benches  for  the 
protonotaries  of  the  sacred  palace,  employed  in  taking 
minutes  of  the  proceedings.  Facing  tlie  cardinals  was  the 
seat  appropriated  to  the  royal  ambassadors  who  were  prelates ; 
and  behind  them,  on  both  sides  of  the  nave,  glorious  with 
its  layers  of  black  and  white  marble,  were  the  seats  reaching 
down  to  the  door  of  the  church,  for  the  archbishops,  bishops, 
and  abbots,  in  due  order  of  seniority ;  while  stools  were  pro- 
vided for  the  envoys  from  chapters  and  convents.  Fair  benches 
{scamna  bene  honesta),  but  on  a  rather  lower  level,  were  set 
apart  for  knights,  doctors,  and  those  ambassadors  who  were  not 
prelates.  Every  effort  had  been  made  to  secure  to  those  present 
their  proper  seats,  but  a  notary  gave  warning  that  any  failure 
in  this  respect  would  entail  no  prejudice  in  the  future.^ 

When  all  had  taken  their  places,  the  Mass  of  the  Holy 
^  Mansi,  xxvii.  Ii6  ;  Rdigieux^  iv.  208. 


PISA  341 

Spirit  was  celebrated  by  the  aged  Cardinal  of  Palestrina,  and 
a  sermon,  introductory  to  the  business  of  the  council,  was 
preached  by  a  Master  of  Theolojjy  ;  after  which,  it  being  the 
Feast  of  the  Annunciation  of  the  Blessed  V^irgin,  nothing  more 
was  done.  The  council  had  been  regularly  opened  ;  the  first 
general  session  for  business  was  appointed  for  tiie  morrow. 


342     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 


CHAPTER    X 

THE    WAY    OF    A    COUNCIL 

The  first  meeting  of  the  Council  of  Pisa  had  been  an  occa- 
sion of  ceremonial  devotion;  the  second  meeting,  or  first 
general  session,  was  allotted  mainly  to  the  preparatory  arrange- 
ments necessary  for  its  work. 

The  opening  Mass  of  the  Holy  Spirit  was  celebrated  by  the 
Cardinal  of  Palestrina  in  long  cope  {pluviak)  and  white  mitre, 
but  without  his  chasuble  or  sandals ;  the  other  cardinals,  the 
bishops,  and  abbots  remained  standing  the  while ;  when  it  was 
finished  they  donned   their  surplices,  copes,  and   mitres,  and 
took  their  places.     Tiien  followed  the  sermon.     The  preacher 
was  noteworthy,  and  his  text  remarkable.     Pietro  Filargi  was 
a  citizen  of  Bologna  of  low  birth  ;  he  had  once  been  a  beggar 
boy  in  Crete,  and  had  been  picked  up  by  a  Venetian  Cordeher, 
who  noted  his  happy  disposition,  took  him  back  to  Venice, 
and  made  him  enter  the   Order  of  the  Franciscans.     He  was 
educated  by  the  friars,  was  sent  to  Pavia,  Norwich,  Oxford, 
and   afterwards  to   Paris,   where  he    read   theology  and   was 
accounted  one  of  the  most  brilliant  stars  of  the  University ; 
then  he  went  to  Candia  again  and  remained  in  the  island  some 
time,  so  that  he  became  known  as  the  Candiot.     After  this  he 
went  to   Lombardy  and  became  the  leading  member  of  the 
council  of  the  Duke  Gian  Galeazzo,  was  tutor  to  his  son,  and 
finally  Archbishop  of  Milan.     He  had  been  created  Cardinal- 
Priest  '  of  the  Twelve  Apostles  '  by  Innocent  the  Seventh  in 
June  1405.     He  knew  men  and  manners,  and  must  have  been 
a  strone  and  able  man  to  win  the  confidence  of  the  Duke  of 
Milan.     He  was  kind-hearted,  fond  of  strong  wine,  did  not 
pretend  to  any  degree  of  austerity,  and  knew  very  little  of  the 
business  of  the  Consistory.     He  was  profusely  liberal,  so  that, 
as  he  said  later,  he  had  been  a  rich  bishop,  a  poor  cardinal,  and 


THE  WAY  OF  A  COUNCIL  343 

was  a  mere  beggar  as  Pope.^     He  was,  moreover,  a  great  friend 
of  Baldassare  Cossa,  whom  he  admired  and  implicitly  trusted. 
As    his  text  before  the  council  he  took  the  words,  '  Adestis 
omnes  Jiln  Israel;  decernite  quid  facere  c?^6m^w"' (' Behold,  ye 
Children  of  Israel,   all  of  you,    give    here  your   advice   and 
counsel ').    The  words  had  been  addressed  by  the  Levite,  whose 
concubine  had  been  killed,  to  the  Israelites,  calling  on  them 
for  vengeance  on  the  children  of  Benjamin.     Filargi,  however, 
did  not  refer  to  this,  but  assured  his  listeners  that,  short  of  a 
council,  nothing  but  a  miracle  could  heal  the  accursed  Schism. 
It  was  the  general  opinion  of  everybody.     The  sermon  being 
over,  all  present  donned  their  silk   copes  and  white   mitres, 
and  the  cardinal  who  had  celebrated  Mass  moved  to  the  altar, 
where  the  chalice  and  paten  were  prepared,  while  antiphonies 
were  meantime  sung.     Then  the  officiating  deacon  called  out 
'  Orate,'  and  all   the  prelates  knelt,  with   their  heads  to  the 
ground  and   their    mitres    before    them,    for   the    space  of  a 
Miserere.     The  deacon  and  sub-deacon  then  read  the  Litany, 
to  which  all,  still  kneeling,  responded.     After  a  prayer  from 
the  Cardinal  of  Palestrina,  they  rose.     On  this  the  Cardinal  de 
Saluces,  habited    as  a   deacon,   read    the    Gospel ;    the    Veni 
Creator  was  sung  by  the  whole  assembly  kncehng;  the  officiating 
deacon  called  on  them  to  rise  ;  and  they,  putting  on  their  mitres, 
took  their  seats.^      The  business  of  the  council  then  began. 

The  Archbishop  of  Pisa,  Alaman  Adimar,  mounted  the 
chancel  and  read  the  preliminary  decrees,  namely  the  Con- 
fession of  Faith  of  Pope  Gregory  the  Tenth,  the  Decree  of  the 
Synod  of  Toledo  of  the  year  675,  enjoining  peace  and  order 
during  a  council,  and  the  Declaration  that  the  present  council 
believed  and  taught  according  to  the  faith  and  teaching  of 
Holy  Church.  The  Cardinal  of  Palestrina  then  addressed 
them  concerning  the  election  of  officers.  Six  notaries,  four 
proctors,  and  two  advocates  were  then  elected,  and  swore  duly 
to  perform  their  respective  functions.  One  of  the  notaries, 
Simon  of  Perugia,  then  addressed  the  council,  and  demanded 
that  the  letters  of  convocation  issued  by  both  colleges  be  now 
read,  together  with  the  invitations  to  the  rival  pontiffs,  and 
the  proofs  of  their  execution.  This  was  done  by  an  English 
1  Ghirar,  ii.  576;  Lenfant,  i.  286;  Wylic,  iii.  380.        '  Mansi,  xxvii.  117. 


344     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

doctor  who  was  secretary  to  the  Council :  he  read  the  invita- 
tion to  Pope  Gregory  and  the  note  of  its  execution  at  Siena ; 
then  the  invitation  to  Pope  Benedict  and  the  return  of  execu- 
tion thereto,  with  the  answer  of  the  Pope  and  of  the  three 
cardinals  who  had  gone  with  him  from  Porto  Venere  to 
Perpignan.  One  of  the  proctors  on  this  demanded  that  they 
should  be  declared  contumacious ;  on  which  the  presiding 
cardinal  deputed  two  cardinal-deacons,  two  archbishops,  and 
two  bishops  to  ascertain  whether  they  were  present.  Accom- 
panied by  the  notaries,  they  proceeded  to  the  doors  of  the 
Cathedral  and  called  on  Petrus  de  Luna  and  Angelus  Corrario, 
in  Latin  and  in  the  vulgar,  to  appear  either  in  person  or  by 
their  fully  empowered  proctors.  The  call  was  made  three 
times  without  result.  The  request  that  they  be  proclaimed 
contumacious  was  then  repeated  ;  the  President  answered  that 
the  request  was  good,  but  that  the  call  to  appear  should  be 
repeated  on  the  morrow.     The  session  then  terminated.^ 

At  the  second  general  session  the  two  rival  Popes,  Petrus  de 
Luna,  called  Benedict  the  Thirteenth,  and  Angelus  Corrario, 
called  Gregory  the  Twelfth,  were  again  summoned  to  appear, 
and  on  their  default  application  was  made  that  they  and  their 
recusant  cardinals  be  declared  contumacious.  As  there  was  a 
certain  difference  of  opinion,  a  special  session  was  held  next 
day  to  discuss  the  legal  points.  The  third  general  session  was 
held  on  the  30th  March ;  and  as  the  rival  Popes  and  their 
cardinals  still  made  default,  the  two  Popes  were  then  declared 
contumacious.  The  next  session  was  appointed  for  the  15th 
April,  and  grace  until  that  date  was  given  to  the  cardinals  to 
appear.  The  council  did  not  recognise  any  recent  creations  : 
the  four  who  had  not  as  yet  come  to  Pisa,  but  whom  it  was 
willing  to  admit  within  the  period  of  grace,  were  the  Cardinal 
of  Todi  of  the  obedience  of  Gregory,  and  the  Cardinals  Chalant, 
Flesco,  and  Flandrin  of  the  obedience  of  Benedict.^  The 
notice  calling  on  the  cardinals  to  attend  was  posted  on  the 
doors  of  the  Cathedral. 

The  reason  for  the  lengthy  prorogation  was  that  Easter  in- 
tervened.    The  services  for  this  holy  season  were  held  at  the 

^  Mansi,  xxvii.  ii8;  Hefele,  vi.  995. 

*  Mansi,  xxvii.  121,  359  ;  Hefele,  vi.  996. 


THE  WAY  OF  A  COUNCIL  'M5 

Church  of  Saint  Martin.  A  Franciscan  bishop  preached  on 
Black  Thursday ;  an  Englisli  doctor,  Richard  by  name,  on 
Good  Friday ;  and  on  Easter  Sunday  the  sermon  was  given  by 
the  Franciscan  Vitalis.  Meanwhile  fresh  arrivals  were  plenti- 
ful. Leonardo  of  Arezzo  wrote  on  the  3rd  April  that  the 
attendance  was  very  numerous :  '  things  are  better  arranged,' 
says  he,  '  than  one  would  have  expected.  So  many  people, 
and  persons  of  distinction,  arrive  daily  that  Pisa  will  hardly 
be  able  to  contain  them.  Nothing  can  equal  the  vigilance  and 
humanity  of  the  Fathers.  The  English  bishops  with  the 
Cardinal  of  Bordeaux  are  expected.'^  This  cardinal  was 
Francesco  Uguccione  of  ITrbino,  a  learned  lawyer  who  had 
been  created  cardinal  by  Innocent  the  Seventh,  and  who  had 
been  for  twenty  years  Archbishop  of  Bordeaux,  He  was  one 
of  the  first  to  revolt  from  Gregory.  '  On  September  10th  he 
was  with  the  cardinals  at  Pisa,  but  before  the  end  of  the  same 
month  he  travelled  to  Paris,  where  he  had  repeated  conferences 
with  the  French  Council,  and  being  an  active  man  and  a  ready 
speaker,  in  spite  of  his  great  age,  he  did  his  best  to  bring 
about  an  understanding  between  France  and  England  for 
common  purposes.  Accompanied  by  his  secretary,  the  saintly 
herd-boy  Pey  Berland,  ...  he  crossed  the  Channel  from  Calais, 
and  arrived  in  England  about  the  beginning  of  November  1408, 
bringing  with  him  a  letter  addressed  to  Archbishop  Arundel 
from  the  Patriarch  Simon  de  Cramaud  and  many  archbishops, 
bishops,  and  abbots  assembled  in  Paris."'-  He  was  now  ex- 
pected in  Pisa  with  the  English  prelates,  both  archbishops, 
five  bishops,  and  others,  but  they  did  not  arrive  till  the  7th 
May.^  The  Abbe  de  Saint-Maxence,  in  a  letter  to  the  Bishop 
of  Poitiers,  says  that  there  were  at  this  time  in  Pisa  a  hundred 
and  fifty  prelates  in  copes  and  mitres,  besides  other  abbots  who 
were  not  mitred.*  The  city  was  fast  filling.  But  the  most 
important  personages  who  arrived  in  this  interval  were  the 
envoys  from  Rupert,  King  of  the  Romans,  and  Carlo  Malatesta, 
Lord  of  Rimini. 

On  the  26th  July  1408  the  cardinals  had  written  from 
Leghorn  to  King  Rupert,  informing  him  that  they 
meant  to  convoke  a  general  council ;  they  had  subsequently 

^  Lenfant,  i.  248.     '^  Wylie,  iii.  364.     '  Mansi,  xxvii.  348.     ■•  Monstrelet,  153. 


346     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCH^S 

told  him  that  it  was  to  be  held  at  Pisa  on  Lady  Day 
1409.  The  King,  however,  considered  himself  bound  in 
honour  not  to  desert  Pope  Gregory.  He  knew  that  it  was 
from  fear  of  Baldassare  Cossa  and  the  Florentines  that  Gregory 
had  declined  to  go  to  Savona :  he  knew  that  the  Venetians 
had  fallen  off  from  him  because  he  would  not  promote  the 
nephew  of  their  Doge,  Michele  Steno,  to  be  their  bishop ;  he 
felt  that  if  he  himself  abandoned  Pope  Gregory  he  would  be 
in  that  invidious  position  against  which  his  father  had  warned 
King  Wenzel.  Above  all  else,  he  was  convinced  that  the 
action  of  the  cardinals  would  not  further  the  real  welfare  of 
the  Church,  but  would  result  in  a  threefold,  instead  of  a  two- 
fold. Schism.  He  therefore  determined  to  send  an  embassy 
to  Pisa  to  represent  his  views,  and  he  selected  for  this  purpose 
Archbishop  John  of  Riga,  the  Bishops  Matthew  of  Worms 
and  Ulrich  of  Verden,  the  Protonotary  John  of  Weinheim 
and  Master  Conrad  of  Soest.  The  Council  of  Pisa,  through 
the  intervention  of  the  Cardinals  of  Milan  and  Bari,  had 
decided  to  recognise  Wenzel  as  King  of  the  Romans.  Rupert, 
on  his  part,  did  not  recognise  the  council  as  a  genuine 
oecumenical  council ;  and  this  may  have  been  the  reason  why 
his  ambassadors  did  not  wear  their  dalmatics,  so  that  they 
could  not  sit  with  the  other  prelates  and  ambassadors.^ 

The  fourth  general  session  was  opened  on  the  15th  April 
with  the  usual  solemnities;  and  after  the  Litany,  Master 
Conrad  of  Soest  appeared  and  craved  an  audience  for  the 
envoys  of  King  Rupert.  On  permission  being  granted,  the 
Bishop  of  Verden  went  to  the  bishop's  seat,  and  taking  as  his 
text  the  words  Pax  Vobis  he  commenced  his  harangue.  He 
complained  of  the  want  of  accuracy  and  formality  in  the 
subtraction  of  obedience  by  the  cardinals,  and  of  their  pre- 
suming to  call  a  council  without  consulting  the  King  of  the 
Romans,  and  in  derogation  of  the  rigiit  of  the  Pope  who  had 
already  called  a  council  of  his  own ;  and  he  dilated  on  the 
inaccuracies  which  their  post-dating  the  invitations  had  pro- 
duced. They  had  no  right  to  order  the  faithful  to  disobey 
their  Pope ;  they  had  no  right,  even  in  the  cause  of  union,  to 
subtract  their  own  obedience,  doing  evil  on  the  pretext  that 
^  Religietix,  iv.  2i6. 


THE  WAY  OF  A  COUNCIL  347 

good  might  come.  The  cardinals  had  no  right,  ordinary  or 
delegated,  to  call  a  council  ;  the  assemblage  which  they  have 
convened  has  no  right  to  such  a  title.  They  have,  moreover, 
determined  beforehand  what  the  Holy  Spirit  is  to  move  them 
to  do ;  and  the  term  which  they  have  fixed  is  too  short  to 
allow  of  all  those  of  Gregory's  obedience  appearing.  It  is 
absurd  to  stigmatise  all  tiiose  who  remain  true  to  their  Pope 
as  fautors  of  Schism.  The  more  important  points  of  the 
bishop's  discourse  were  those  which  dealt  with  Pope  Gregory 
himself.  Either  he  was  Pope  or  he  was  not :  if  he  was  Pope, 
then  they  were  bound  to  obey  him  ;  if  he  were  not  Pope,  then 
the  question  arose,  when  had  he  ceased  to  be  Pope,  seeing 
that  he  had  never  resigned  nor  been  condemned  by  the 
Church  Universal  for  heresy  or  any  such  sin.  If  his  cardinals 
doubted  his  position,  the  same  doubts  must  attach  to  the 
positions  of  Innocent  the  Seventh,  of  Boniface  the  Ninth, 
of  Urban  the  Sixth;  nay,  the  same  doubts  must  attach  to 
their  own  standing  as  cardinals.  Pope  Gregory  is  not  called 
on  to  appear  before  the  Council  of  Pisa,  which  is  composed  in 
the  main  of  those  who  acknowledge  the  opposite  obedience, 
and  in  which  those  of  Gregory's  obedience  are  his  enemies; 
and  how  can  enemies  be  judges  ?  If  he  were  to  come  to  Pisa 
and  to  resign,  then  would  Benedict,  if  he  did  not  resign, 
become  sole  Pope ;  but  if  Benedict  resign  not,  then  is  not 
Gregory  called  upon  to  resign.  In  conclusion,  in  the  name 
of  King  Rupert  whose  right  they  had  usurped,  the  bishop 
proposed  that  the  cardinals  should  convene  with  Pope  Gregory 
at  a  place  agreeable  to  them  both,  at  which  the  Pope  should 
do  all  that  he  had  promised  at  his  election  ;  if  he  refused,  the 
King  would  back  up  the  cardinals  in  their  choice  of  a  new 
Pope.^  The  sermon  w-as  illogical  enough,  contesting  tiie  right 
of  the  cardinals  to  convoke  a  council  at  one  time,  and 
acknowledging  it  at  another ;  the  objections  taken  were,  says 
the  Monk  of  Saint-Denys,  full  of  chicanery  ;  they  were,  says 
Creighton,  '  of  a  narrow  and  technical  character,  mostly 
founded  on  an  acute  criticism  of  the  terms  of  the  summons 
to  the  council,  and  difficulties  concerning  its  dates.'" 

'  Hoefler,  433  et  seq.  ;  Hefele,  vi.  998-10x30. 
-  Keligieux,  iv.  216;  Creighton,  i.  242. 


348     m  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

This  sermon  on  the  text  of  Peace  was  a  declaration  of  open 
war,  a  sowing  of  discord.  It  was  the  first  bit  of  opposition 
which  the  council  had  as  yet  encountered.  The  Holy  Fathers 
were  not  prepared  to  reply  on  the  spot  to  this  burst  of 
eloquence  so  full,  as  it  seemed  to  them,  of  damnable  heresy 
and  iteration ;  they  requested  the  orator  to  withdraw  while 
they  consulted  together;  and  on  his  readmittance  they 
asked  him  to  give  them  in  writing  a  list  of  the  King's 
objections,  that  they  might  consider  and  answer  them.  The 
Bishop  at  first  demurred,  but  eventually  agreed ;  and  the 
list,  under  twenty-four  heads,  was  delivered  next  day  at  a 
special  session  appointed  for  the  purpose  and  held  at  the 
Church  of  Saint  Martin,^  and  a  commission  was  appointed  to 
consider  and  to  answer  them.  Having  thus  got  rid  of  the 
obstructive  Teutons  for  the  nonce,  the  council  proceeded  with 
its  business.  The  rival  Popes  and  the  four  cardinals  were 
again  summoned,  and  again  the  answer  was  returned  that 
they  were  not  present;  but  further  grace  was  given  to  the 
cardinals  as  it  was  known  that  many  who  desired  to  take 
part  in  the  council  had  not  been  able  as  yet  to  reach  Pisa. 
The  next  session  was  appointed  for  the  24th. 

Before  this  day  arrived  the  German  embassy  had  departed. 
While  they  were  in  the  Cathedral  on  the  15th  their  grooms 
quarrelled  with  those  outside,  and  the  ambassadors,  when 
they  came  out  protesting  against  the  Council,  took  part  in  the 
disturbance  and  increased  the  scandal.  After  the  special 
session  Conrad  of  Soest  posted  on  the  doors  of  the  Cathedral 
a  protest,  containing  the  points  of  objection,  setting  forth  the 
right  of  the  King  of  the  Romans  alone  to  call  a  general 
council,  and  stigmatising  the  Council  of  Pisa  as  a  mere 
conciliabulum.  Having  thus  launched  this  hriitum  fulvien^ 
the  German  embassy  early  on  the  21st  April,  secretly,  without 
intimation  to  any  of  their  intention,  without  taking  leave 
of  any  cardinal,  stole  away  from  Pisa,  a  laughing-stock  to 
all:  they  were  described  by  a  countryman  of  their  own  as 
'  derisi  et  quasi  fatui  et  juris  ignari  communiter  reputati.''  That 
same  day — it  was  a  Sunday — a  Franciscan  bishop  preached, 
appropriately  enough,  on  the  text  '  Mercenarius  fugit '  ('  The 
^  Mansi,  xxvii.  123,  362. 


THE  WAY  OF  A  COUNCIL  849 

hirelinor  fleeth"').^  Although  they  had  fled  like  thieves  in  the 
night,  the  council  determined  that  their  protest  should  be 
answered,  and  committed  the  task  to  a  learned  doctor  of 
Bolo<Tna,  Petrus  de  Anchorano,  whose  report  was  subsequently 
read  at  the  seventh  session  :  it  was  very  voluminous  and 
learned,  filling  twenty-eight  columns  of  Mansi.^ 

Meanwhile  in  Quasimodo  week  there  had  come  to  Pisa 
Carlo  Malatesta,  handsome,  learned,  eloquent  and  liberal,  the 
best  and  most  loyal  of  his  race.^  He  was  the  consistent 
partisan  and  last  refuge  of  Pope  Gregory  whom  he  was  at 
this  time  sheltering  in  one  of  his  castles ;  he  had  come  to 
Pisa  to  try  if  he  could  make  terms  between  his  friend  and  the 
cardinals.  The  Lord  of  Rimini  was  at  this  present  just  forty 
years  of  age;*  he  had  won  fair  renown  in  the  arts  alike  of 
peace  and  of  war:  so  charmed  had  Gian  Galeazzo  of  Milan 
been  with  him  aforetime  that  he  had  appointed  him  tutor  to 
his  sons.  Carlo  Malatesta  hated  men  of  commerce,  but  loved 
men  of  letters ;  he  was  admirably  qualified  to  treat  with  the 
cardinals,  for  he  could  bandy  a  jest  as  well  as  an  argument ;  he 
was  a  man  of  affairs  as  well  as  an  orator.^  The  Cardinals  de 
Thury  and  Brancacio  of  the  obedience  of  Benedict,  and  those 
of  Milan  and  Aquileia  of  the  obedience  of  Gregory,  were 
appointed  to  confer  with  him ;  his  old  friend,  Baldassare 
Cossa,  was  still  on  the  warpath  against  King  Ladislas  of 
Naples,  and  had  not  been  able  to  reach  Pisa  as  yet. 

Carlo  Malatesta — or  rather  his  orator,  for  a  long  sermon 
was  first  delivered  on  the  text  '  Honora  Matrem  tuam ' — set 
before  the  cardinals  all  that  he  had  done  in  the  cause  of  unity. 
He  mentioned  that  the  Cardinal  Legate  of  Bologna  had  urged 
him  to  work  the  good  work,  but  that  he  had  found  it 
impossible  to  persuade  Gregory  to  come  to  Pisa,  for  he 
would  have  none  of  Pisa,  '' Pisas  dominus  Gregorius  omnino 
respuif ;  now  he  wished  to  persuade  the  council  to  adjourn 
to  some  other  time  and  place  where  Gregory  could  meet 
them  ;  he  suggested  Bologna,  Forli,  or  Mantua ;  he  would 
not  propose    Rimini,  although  it  was  as  safe  as  any.°     The 

1  De  Schis7nate,  301  ;  ReUgieux,  iv.  218  ;  Christophe,  iii.  306. 

-  Mansi,  xxvii.  367-94.  ^  Monstrelet,  151  ;  Yriarte,  46. 

*  Biog.  Univ.  xxvi.  326.  ''  Lenfant,  i.  259.         «  Mansi,  xxvii.  226  tt  seq. 


350     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

cardinals    defended    their    choice:    it    was    necessary    that    a 
council  should  meet,  for  both  Popes  disregarded  their  vows 
and  promises  and  were  playing  with   Christendom  ;   in    fact 
Malatesta  himself  had  admitted  to  Cardinal  Filargi  that  it 
was  necessary  that  a  general  council  should  be  convoked  by 
the   cardinals.     As  to  the   place,   both    Popes  had  formerly 
recommended  Pisa,  which  was    both    convenient,  secure,  and 
accessible.      The  council  is  now  opened,    and    the    cardinals 
have  no  right  to  change  the  venue,  having  regard  to  those 
who  are  already  present  and  to  those  who  are  on  their  road. 
The  Lord  of  Rimini  himself,   they    suggested,   might    work 
effectually  for  the  peace  of  the  Church  by  prevailing  on  Pope 
Gregory  to    come   to    Pisa.     Carlo    Malatesta  answered  that 
Benedict   had    certainly   agreed   to    Pisa,  but   on    conditions 
which  were  not  fulfilled,  while  Gregory's  relations  to  Florence 
had  so  altered  that  any  place  in  their  dominions  must  needs 
be    obnoxious   to    him.     He    would    not   argue    whether   the 
present  council  was  oecumenical  or  not ;  but  he  thought  that 
if  the   cardinals  agreed  to  a  change  of  venue,  no  one    else 
would  dispute  their  decision.     The  main  object  after  all  was 
the  union  of  the  Church,  not  any  particular  place ;  and  those 
who  were  too  poor  to  bear  the  expense  of  removing  could  be 
helped    from   the    Apostolic   treasury ;    he    hoped    that    the 
cardinals  would  reflect  carefully  over  the  matter,  and  not  act 
in  the  spirit  of  contention.     Gregory  was  ready  to  do  even 
more  than  he  was  bound  to  ;  therefore  let  not  the  cardinals, 
let   not   the    Cardinal   of  Milan,  through   hate   or   revenge, 
prosecute  Christ  in  the  person    of  His  representative,  in  the 
person    of  him    whom   they    had    themselves   chosen   as   the 
successor  of  Saint  Peter.     He  warned  them,  as  King  Rupert 
had  warned  them  before,  that  the  path  they  were  now  tread- 
ing led  not  to  unity  in  the  Church,  but  to    trinity.     Carlo 
Malatesta  was  doubtless  aware  of  the  dread  in  Italy  lest  an 
Ultramontane,    or   possibly   a    German,  might  be  chosen  by 
the  council  as  Pope ;  he  knew   of  the   influence    of  Cardinal 
Baldassare  Cossa,  and  of  his  friendship  for  the  Cardinal   of 
Milan,   and    hence    probably   his    reference    to    Filargi.^     In 
reply  the  cardinals  confronted  Malatesta  with  the  alternatives 

^  Hoefler,  440. 


THE  WAY  OF  A  COUNCIT.  351 

that  Gregory  should  either  come  to  Pisa  or  that  he  shouhl 
resign  at  Rimini  in  presence  of  a  deputation  whom  they 
would  send  there  for  the  purpose.  They  endeavoured  to 
persuade  the  Lord  of  Rimini  that  there  would  come  great 
glory  to  his  city  through  the  resignation,  and  tliat,  resigna- 
tion being  equivalent  to  death  of  a  Pope,  the  election  of  the 
new  Pope  must  also  be  held  at  Rimini.  But  to  this  specious 
argument  Carlo  Malatesta  merely  replied  tiiat  he  desired 
fame  neither  for  himself  nor  his  State,  but  simply  the  weal 
of  the  Church.^ 

Their  first  conference  having  been  thus  fruitless,  the 
cardinals  sent  the  eloquent  Bishop  of  Cambrai  to  argue 
with  the  learned  Lord  of  Rimini.  Pierre  d'Ailly  had  just 
reached  Pisa,  having  started  from  Paris  with  the  Cardinal 
of  Bari  and  the  unlucky  Archbishop  of  Reims.^  Together 
with  the  Archbishop  of  Pisa  and  two  others  he  waited  on 
Carlo  Malatesta  at  his  dwelling,  and  endeavoured  to  persuade 
him  that  he  ought  to  prevail  on  Gregory  to  submit,  and  that 
the  proposal  to  change  the  place  of  the  council's  meeting  was 
utterly  wrong  and  could  only  hinder  the  work  of  unity. 
Arguments  of  all  kinds  were  introduced,  and  a  long  conversa- 
tion ensued.  Malatesta  assured  the  deputies  that,  if  only 
the  Council  met  as  he  proposed,  then  Gregory  would  do 
whatever  was  required  and  would  resign  if  Benedict  did  the 
like.  Pisa  had  been  chosen  simply  to  please  the  Florentines, 
whom  neither  Carlo  Malatesta  nor  Gregory  loved  or  trusted. 
He  told  them  that  as  he  came  through  Florence  he  had 
talked  with  the  Priors  of  the  Arts,  and  had  said  to  them, 
<  My  worthy  lords  and  gentlemen,  it  appears  to  me  that  your 
city  wants  Holy  Church  to  elect  herself  a  new  Pastor  in 
order  to  minister  to  your  necessities,  and  I  doubt  whether 
you  ought  not  in  honour  to  change  your  proposal.'^ 

While  they  were  still  conferring,  a  message  came  from  the 
four  cardinals  saying  that  they  were  awaiting  Malatesta  at  the 
house  of  the  Cardinal  of  Aquileia.  He  mounted  his  horse 
and  rode  off  thither,  to  be  met  with  the  excuse  that  they  had 
not  known  he  was  engaged  with  the  deputies.     A  fresh  con- 

1  Mansi,  xxvii.  268.  ^  pjefele,  vi.  1004;  Tschackert,  156,  note. 

^  Mansi,  xxvii.  276. 


352     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

ference  took  place  between  the  four  cardinals  and  four  deputies 
on  the  one  side  and  Carlo  Malatesta  on  the  other.  The 
lords  cardinals  were  getting  heated  and  impatient.  Cardinals 
Brancacio  and  De  Thury  pointed  out  how  irrational  it  was 
now  to  want  the  place  of  meeting  changed,  and  Malatesta 
gave  up  all  hope  of  effecting  his  purpose.     They  all  rose. 

The  Lord  of  Rimini  was  leaving,  when  Cardinal  Filargi 
stopped  him  and  said,  '  The  Lord  Gregory  and  I  have  lived 
together  and  are  old  friends ;  I  ask  you,  therefore,  to  say  to 
him  from  me  that,  now  we  are  old,  we  ought  to  think  of  the 
salvation  of  our  souls.  Let  us  lay  aside  these  dignities  which 
profit  rather  to  vanity  than  to  salvation ;  let  him  resign  his 
papacy  and  I  will  resign  my  cardinalship ;  let  us  go  to  Saint 
Nicolas  on  the  Lido  and  serve  God  there.'  He  joined  his 
hands  and  added,  '  I  beseech  you,  Charles,  say  this  much  from 
me.'  But  Carlo  Malatesta  did  not  trust  the  man  who,  like 
himself,  had  been  tutor  under  that  wily  old  fox,  the  Duke  of 
Milan.     The  Pope  and  the  Cardinal  might  indeed  have  been 

'  friends  in  youth  ; 

But  whispering  tongues  can  poison  truth. 

And  constancy  lives  in  realms  above,' 

and  not  necessarily,  so  Malatesta  suspected,  in  the  breast  of 
Pietro  Filargi,  the  devoted  friend  and  adherent  of  the  old 
Pope's  worst  and  strongest  enemy,  Baldassare  Cossa.  There 
were  some  who  took  Filargi  for  a  mighty  theologian  and 
prophet,  '  summum  theologum  summumque  prophetam,^  ^  but  to 
Carlo  Malatesta  he  was  a  cardinal  with  clerical  frailties,  vaulting 
ambition  among  the  rest.  '  Your  words  sound  fair,  my  lord,' 
said  he,  'but  since  Gregory  is  willing  to  resign  the  papacy 
and  does  not  ask  you  to  give  up  your  cardinalship  nor  to 
follow  him  into  a  monastery,  why  not  accompany  him  to  some 
secure  place  in  which  he  may  resign,  you  may  remain  cardinal, 
and  the  true  union  and  sacred  peace  of  Holy  Church  may  be 
attained.?'  'He  will  never  resign,'  replied  Filargi;  'he  who 
has  once  sat  in  the  papal  seat  counts  it  too  sweet  ever  to 
relinquish  save  on  compulsion.'  'Why  then  blame  him  for 
his  trifling  delay  ? '  rejoined  Malatesta.  '  Is  he  that  has  tasted 
of  the  repast  less  likely  to  hasten  than  he  that  has  never 
1  Brieger,  xxviii.  196. 


THE   WAY  OF  A  COUNCIL  358 

partaken  ?  You  know  not  as  yd  whether  he  will  resign  or 
not;  if  he  do,  then  you  have  your  desire;  if  he  fail,  then  will 
all  Christendom  be  witness  of  his  error,"  More  also  he  said. 
The  one  man  believed  in  Gregory,  the  other  did  not ;  more- 
over, Filargi  detected  some  hidden  significance  in  the  other's 
words,  and  imagined  that  he  was  taunting  him  with  being 
himself  in  love  with  the  papal  throne.  '  You  are  talking  at 
me,"  said  he,  *but,  thanks  be  to  God,  little  care  I  for  the 
papacy.  Let  who  will  be  Pope,  provided  the  Church  is  united, 
I  reck  not  at  all ;  though,  so  far  as  in  me  lies,  I  would  choose 
a  worthy  shepherd  for  the  flock.'  Carlo  Malatesta,  sad  at 
heart,  laughed  bitterly,  and  said  jestingly  to  the  others 
present,  '  Think  you,  my  lords,  that  the  Cardinal  of  Milan 
would  willingly  ascend  the  papal  throne  ? '  And  when  all 
laughed  at  his  question,  he  continued,  '  Truly  I  am  of  the 
same  opinion  as  you  all  are.'^  So  speaking  he  returned  to 
his  dwelling,  and  thus  ended  the  last  real  attempt  to  reconcile 
Gregory  and  the  cardinals. 

The  Pope,  as  already  narrated,  subsequently  held  his  own 
little  council  at  Cividale.  The  cardinals  indeed  said  something 
about  being  ready  to  meet  Gregory  at  any  place  within  thirty 
miles,  and  suggested  Pistoja  or  San  Miniato ;  but  Carlo  Mala- 
testa, though  willing  to  recommend  Pistoja,  did  not  think  that 
Gregory  would  consent  to  any  place  within  the  Florentine  juris- 
diction. Whether  Gregory  had  any  real  ground  for  suspicion 
beyond  his  vague  distrust  of  Baldassare  Cossa  and  the  Floren- 
tines, whether  the  suspicion  itself  was  ground  for  glory  to  the 
city  or  shame,^  is  immaterial ;  the  suspicion  was  ineradicable. 
Something  also  was  said,  but  nothing  settled,  about  sending 
deputies  to  Gregory's  council.  The  negotiations  for  the 
reconciliation  had  terminated  in  utter  failure.  The  cardinals 
were  not  to  be  bullied  by  King  Rupert,  nor  persuaded  by 
Carlo  Malatesta,  into  transferring  their  council  from  Pisa. 
They  held  on  the  even  tenor  of  their  way,  and  Carlo 
Malatesta  left  Pisa  on  the  26th  April. 

On  the  24th  April  the  fifth  general  session  was  held,  and  a 
decided  step  taken  in  advance.     The  two  Popes  and  four  car- 
dinals were  as  usual  summoned  and  declared  absent;  the  Popes 
^  Mansi,  xxvii.  284-5.  ^  Brieger,  xxviii.  195. 


354     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

were  condemned  for  aggravated  contumacy,  and  fresh  grace 
for  appearance  was  given  to  the  cardinals.  As  a  step  preliminary 
to  process  against  the  two  rival  Popes,  a  tedious  statement  in  the 
form  of  an  indictment  was  read,  'proliwa  scriptura  per  modum 
libelli  ^  articulorum  contra  ipsos  contendentes^  containing  the 
full  history  of  the  Great  Schism,  from  the  cardinals'  point  of 
view,  from  the  election  of  Pope  Urban  the  Sixth  onward.  It 
laid  particular  stress  on  the  collusion  between  the  rivals,  their 
secret  understanding  and  common  design  to  hinder  the  '  way 
of  cession,"*  referring  to  the  embassy  sent  by  Pope  Benedict  to 
Rome  to  Boniface  the  Ninth  and  again  to  the  messengers  who 
passed  between  him  at  Porto  Venere  and  Gregory  at  Lucca.^ 
This  belief  in  collusion  was  tolerably  general  in  Italy.^  The 
statement,  although  it  was  not  so  long  as  that  prepared  by 
Pope  Benedict  and  read  at  Perpignan,  took  three  hours  to 
read  through ;  and  certain  of  the  audience  may  surely  be 
pardoned  if,  during  that  long  Latin  narration  following  on  the 
lengthy  ceremonial  observances,  they  occasionally  slumbered 
and  slept.  At  its  close  a  commission  of  '  notable  men  by 
nations  or  provinces '  was  appointed  to  investigate  the  charges, 
and  the  next  session  was  fixed  for  the  last  day  of  the  month.^ 
Ecclesiastics  were  now  fast  flocking  into  Pisa,  On  the  day 
on  which  the  fifth  session  was  held  there  arrived  the  full  com- 
plement of  the  embassies  from  France  and  the  University  of 
Paris,  the  irrepressible  Simon  de  Cramaud,  afterwards  to  be 
known  as  the  'Torch  of  the  Council,'  leading  the  van,  accom- 
panied by  the  Norman  doctor,  Gilles  des  Champs.  With  them 
came  embassies  from  the  Dukes  of  Brabant  and  Holland,  from 
Cleves,  Bavaria,  Lorraine,  and  Liege;  and  these  were  followed 
by  the  English  contingent,  with  their  brilliant  escort  of  two 
hundred  cavaliers.  The  English  obtained  precedence  over  the 
French  at  the  council,  seeing  that  England  had  been  converted 
by  Joseph  of  Arimathea,  notwithstanding  that  the  French 
asserted  that  they  owed  their  salvation  primarily  to  Lazarus 
and  his  sister  Martha,  and  to  Mary  Magdalen.  At  the  head 
of  the  English  embassy  was  Robert  Hallam  or  Hallum,  an 
honest,   straightforward,   and    independent    churchman,    who 

1  Hefele,  vi.  1007,  1009,  lOii.  ^  Brieger,  xxviii,  193. 

'  Mansi,  xxvii.  363. 


THE  WAY  OF  A  COUNCIT.  355 

believed  that  'the  Lord  desiieth  not  the  death  of  a  sinner, 
but  rather  that  he  shoukl  turn  from  his  wickechiess  and  live."" 
He  had  been  Chancellor  of  the  University  of  Oxford,  and  had 
been  made  Bishop  of  Salisbury  by  a  Bull  of  Gregory  the 
Twelfth,  dated  the  22nd  June  1407.  His  distinction  was 
acknowledged  by  the  council,  who  granted  him  the  first  seat 
on  the  bishops'  bench  to  the  left  of  the  cardinals.  'The 
Prior  of  Canterbury  also  was  thought  to  be  a  man  of  mark, 
both  for  his  high  character  and  his  learning;  but  the  chief 
thing  that  struck  the  foreigners  was  his  nice  stock  of  cash, 
with  which  he  was  as  well  supplied  as  any  of  their  big 
bishops.'  ^  Then  came  in  great  state  the  embassies  from  the 
two  Elector  Archbishops  of  Cologne  and  Mainz,  Those  from 
Cologne,  when  they  were  two  days'  journey  from  Pisa,  fell 
into  the  clutches  of  the  Marquess  of  Malaspina,  who  detained 
them  prisoners,  until  they  were  released  through  the  friendly 
offices  of  Jean  le  Meingre  dit  Boucicaut,  Governor  of  Genoa. '-^ 

At  the  sixth  session  of  the  council,  held  on  the  30th  April, 
the  English  embassy  reached  the  Cathedral  and  took  their 
seats  while  High  Mass  was  being  sung.  Bishop  Hallam  then 
ascended  the  pulpit,  and  taking  for  his  text  the  words  '■Justitia 
et  jiidkium  praeparatio  sedis  tuae''  ('Righteousness  and  judg- 
ment are  the  foundation  of  thy  throne '),  he  preached  a  long  and 
eloquent  sermon,  concluding  with  the  information  that  he  and 
his  fellows  had  come,  provided  with  good  and  sufficient  and 
necessary  powers  from  the  King  and  the  clergy  of  England,  to 
do  and  consent  to  whatever  that  holy  council  or  the  larger 
and  saner  part  thereof  should  think  fit.  He  urged  the 
council  to  follow  the  divine  will  rather  than  any  human,  but 
unfortunately  his  lengthy  discourse  left  them  no  time  to  do 
any  business  beyond  appointing  certain  English  and  German 
members  to  sit  on  the  commission  to  examine  the  charires 
against  the  rival  Popes.^ 

At  the  seventh  session  of  the  council,  held  on  the  4th  Mav, 
something  was  said  as  to  sending  an  embassy  to  King  Ladislas, 
but  nothing  was  decided.  Probably  the  majority  of  the 
members  thought  that  the  matter  had  better  remain  solely  in 

^  Wylie,  iii.  377  ;  Dtc(.  Nat.  Biog.,  xxiv.  99  et  seq. 
'  Religieux,  iv,  223,  *  Mansi,  xxvii.  364. 


356     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

the  hands  of  Cardinal  Baldassare  Cossa.  The  greater  part  of 
the  session  was  occupied  in  listening  to  a  lengthy  lucubration 
from  that  doctor,  learned  in  the  canon  and  civil  law,  Petrus  of 
Anchorano,  who  had  prepared  the  official  answer  to  the  objec- 
tions lodged  by  the  representatives  of  King  Rupert.  All  their 
allegations  might,  he  said,  be  reduced  to  four  chief  heads :  the 
subtraction  of  obedience,  the  convocation  of  the  council,  the 
invitation  to  Pope  Gregory,  and  the  union  of  the  two  colleges 
of  cardinals.  The  doctor  began  by  insisting  that  a  mere 
layman  had  no  right  to  be  heard  on  matters  of  faith.  Nearly 
every  one,  even  the  majority  of  the  German  prelates  and 
princes,  agreed  that  the  present  council  was  necessary  for  the 
ending  of  the  monstrous  two-headed  Schism,  and  yet  King 
Rupert  objected.  His  ambassadors  defended  Gregory  but 
said  nothing  about  Benedict,  who  must  also  be  considered;  for 
a  reconciliation  with  one  Pope  only  was  mere  waste  of  time. 
The  doctor  then  proceeded  to  consider  the  question  of  heresy. 
The  dictum  of  the  canon  law  was  that  a  Pope  could  only  be 
deposed  for  heresy  ;  but  the  Universities  of  Bologna  and  Paris 
had  invented  a  doctrine  of  what  may  be  called  constructive 
heresy ;  the  favouring  or  abetment  of  an  obstinate  Schism  was 
equivalent  to  heresy ;  and  this  doctrine  the  learned  Petrus  of 
Anchorano  upheld.  He  found  that  the  rival  Popes  were 
heretics;  they  desired  to  divide  the  Church,  and  so  sinned 
against  the  fundamental  article  of  belief  in  One  Holy  Church; 
they  were  devastators  of  the  Church,  and  liable  to  punishment 
under  the  canon  law.  Hence,  even  if  each  rival  had  been 
sole  Pope,  since  he  had  fallen  into  heresy  and  schism,  it  was 
lawful  to  withdraw  obedience  from  him  and  to  order  the  faith- 
ful to  do  likewise.  The  lay  princes  were  bound  to  withdraw 
their  obedience.  Preliminary  proof  of  heresy  and  schism  was 
unnecessary,  since  the  fact  was  notorious.  The  next  point 
was  that  the  King's  envoys  had  pretended  that  the  cardinals 
were  not  empowered  to  convoke  a  council.  The  envoys  asserted 
that  they  came  as  intermediaries,  whereas  they  were  obstinate 
partisans  sowing  tares  among  the  wheat,  and  if  they  contended 
that  the  Pope  could  regard  a  general  council  with  distrust, 
that  meant  that  the  Church  Universal  was  liable  to  err. 
Gregory  and   Benedict,  as  fautors  of  schism,  had  lost  their 


THE  WAY  OF  A  COUNX^IL  357 

jurisdiction,  which  had  devolved  on  the  cardinals,  who  could 
call  a  council ;  the  papal  seat  had  been  vacated  through  the 
Schism,  so  that  the  cardinals  were  in  duty  bound  to  take 
thought  for  the  Church  ;  and  even  if  it  were  held  that  the 
papal  seat  were  not  vacant,  still  the  Pope  was  suspected  of 
heresy  and  was  obeyed  by  only  part  of  the  Church,  so  that  the 
case  was  the  same.  Against  a  wrongful  Pope  they  had  a 
canonical  right  to  invoke  the  assistance  of  the  secular  arm. 
AVhile  neither  of  the  rivals  can  convoke  anything  more  than  a 
conciliahulum,  the  present  synod  must  be  held  to  be  convoked 
by  their  joint  authority,  seeing  that  they  both  at  their  election 
implicitly  swore  to  convoke  it.  In  time  of  need,  any  bishop  or 
clerk,  any  simple  Christian,  could  call  a  council.  The  cardinals 
can  not  only  convoke  a  council,  but  Gregory  is  bound  by  his 
oath  to  resign,  even  though  Benedict  do  not  also  abdicate. 
The  third  point,  the  right  of  the  cardinals  to  summon 
Gregory,  necessarily  follows  from  their  right  to  convoke  a 
council ;  and  even  though  they  did  not  summon  both  rivals  to 
appear,  they  could  depose  them  both,  seeing  that  the  complete 
unity  of  the  Church  is  otherwise  unattainable.  Deposition 
will  be  equally  valid,  be  they  absent  or  present.  Finally  the 
union  of  the  two  colleges  was  justified,  because  it  was  impos- 
sible to  determine  which  was  the  rightful  college.^ 

The  council  was  much  consoled  and  strengthened  by  this 
lengthy  report ;  they  decided  to  have  no  further  dealings  with 
'Duke  Rupert  of  Bavaria';  they  solemnly  recognised  Wenzel 
as  the  true  King  of  the  Romans,  and  gave  his  deputies  pre- 
cedence over  all  others.  At  the  same  meeting  the  commission 
to  undertake  the  process  against  the  rival  Popes  was  finally 
settled  ;  they  were  not  going  to  proceed  on  the  ground  of 
mere  notoriety,  but  were  to  take  evidence;  and  for  this 
purpose  they  selected  two  cardinals,  one  from  each  obedience, 
a  bishop  and  three  doctors  fi-om  France,  one  English  doctor, 
one  Provencal,  and  two  Germans.  The  council  further 
agreed  to  send  ambassadors  to  King  Ladislas,  who  was 
besieging  Siena,  to  urge  him  to  cease  hostilities.  Pope 
Gregory  had  given  him  permission  to  levy  revenues  in  the 
Papal  States,  and  the  King  had  now  advanced,  at  the  head  of 
1  Hefele,  vi.  1013-16. 


358     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

twenty-four  thousand  men,  within  five  leagues  of  Pisa,  with 
the  intention  of  overawing  and  stopping  the  council ;  but  the 
Florentines,  as  the  Abbe  of  Saint-Maxence  says  in  his  letter  of 
this  day's  date,  were  able  to  resist  him  and  his  force  and  to 
preserve  the  council  in  safety.^  The  Archbishops  of  Cologne 
and  Mainz  did  not  assist  at  this  session,  owing  to  a  dispute 
about  precedence,  which  the  Fathers  settled  by  getting  them 
to  sit  one  alongside  the  other,  instead  of  one  behind  and  the 
other  in  front.^ 

On  the  8th  May,  it  being  the  Feast  of  the  Apparition  of 
Saint  Michael,  the  cardinals  and  others  met  at  the  flat-roofed 
church  in  the  Via  del  Borgo,  and  listened  in  the  morning  to 
the  eloquence  of  the  Patriarch  of  Alexandria.  He  indulged  in 
the  exercise  of  slaying  the  slain  by  again,  in  his  own  fashion, 
refuting  the  contentions  of  the  German  embassy.  In  the 
afternoon  Cardinal  Guy  de  Maillesec  proposed  that  a  com- 
mittee of  the  council  be  appointed  to  attend  the  deliberations 
of  the  cardinals.  The  patriarch  and  the  archbishops  and 
certain  bishops  were  selected  to  represent  France,  and  similar 
arrangements  were  to  be  made  for  other  nations.  The 
Cardinal  of  Albano  then  announced  the  approaching  arrival  of 
the  ambassadors  of  Pope  Benedict,  who,  he  contended,  alone 
represented  the  Church  Universal,  and  who  alone  could 
extirpate  the  Schism.  He  asked  for  instructions  as  to  their 
reception,  audience,  and  treatment.^  The  consideration  of 
this  matter  was  adjourned  till  the  morrow.  In  the  discussion 
on  the  9th,  the  chief  part  was  taken  by  Simon  de  Cramaud 
and  Robert  Hallam.  They  agreed  that  the  ambassadors 
should  be  courteously  received,  and  inquiry  made  from  them 
as  to  their  powers,  but  that  they  should  not  be  honourably 
welcomed,  seeing  that  they  had  not  subtracted  their  obedience. 
This  latter  proposition  was  opposed  by  the  Bishop  of  Cracow, 
by  the  envoys  from  Mainz  and  Cologne,  and  by  certain 
cardinals  who  had  not  as  yet  formally  withdrawn  their 
obedience.  The  discussion  was  continued  on  the  next  day, 
Wednesday,  the  10th  May. 

The  business  at  the  eighth  general  session  (10th  May)  was 
opened    by  the  Fiscal  Advocate  Simeon,  who  proposed  that 

^  Monslrclet,  153.  ^  Religieux,  iv.  224-6.  •''  Ibid.  iv.  228. 


THE  WAY  OF  A  COUNCIL  359 

the  council  should  expressly  declare  that  the  two  colleges  of 
cardinals  had  united,  and  that  the  council  had  been  convoked 
by  them,  legitimately  and  canonically,  that  it  represented  the 
Church  Universal,  and  was  entitled  as  the  highest  earthly 
judge  to  decide  concerning  both  rival  Popes.  To  this 
most  of  those  present  at  once  answered  Placet ;  but  a 
discussion  arose,  as  the  Bishops  of  Salisbury  and  Evreux 
contended  that  the  union  of  the  colleges  was  not  complete 
unless  and  until  all  the  cardinals  had  withdrawn  their 
obedience.  Further  argument  followed,  but  a  conclusion  was 
reached,  which  was  announced  by  the  Patriarch  of  Alexandria 
and  the  Bishop  of  Salisbury.  It  ran  thus  : — This  holy  Synod 
after  mature  consideration  declareth,  (1)  that  the  union  of  the 
two  colleges  of  cardinals  is  lawful  and  canonical  and  is  hereby 
confirmed ;  (2)  that  this  holy  Synod  hath  been  rightly  and 
canonically  convoked  by  the  united  colleges  ;  (3)  that  it  is  an 
(Ecumenical  Council,  representing  the  Church  Universal,  and 
possessed,  as  the  highest  earthly  judge,  of  the  power  of  judging 
both  pretenders  to  the  Papacy  and  all  that  thereto  apper- 
taineth  ;  and  finally  (4)  that  the  term  for  taking  evidence  be 
further  extended  for  a  week,  and  the  next  session  fixed  for  the 
17th  May.  Meantime  a  minute  of  subtraction  of  obedience 
was  prepared  for  submission  to  the  council  at  the  same 
session.^ 

At  the  ninth  general  session,  held  on  the  17th  May,  the 
Patriarch  of  Alexandria,  Simon  de  Cramaud,  at  the  command 
of  the  council  read  the  following  decree  : — *  This  holy  Synod, 
in  Chrisfs  name  assembled,  declares  and  determines,  on  good 
and  reasonable  grounds,  (1)  that  every  man  ought  voluntarily 
and  lawfully  to  withdraw  from  the  obedience  of  Petrus  de 
Luna,  calling  himself  Benedict  the  Thirteenth  and  of  Angelus 
Corrario,  known  as  Gregory  the  Twelfth,  from  the  time  at 
which  they  forebore  to  follow  and  fulfil  the  "  way  of  cession  ^  to 
which  they  had  sworn  ;  (2)  that  both  pretenders,  having  been 
canonically  summoned  to  be  here  present  and  having  made 
default,  have  been  rightly  declared  contumacious,  and  that 
therefore  it  is  to  be  considered  that  all  believers  have  with- 
drawn and  do  withdraw  their  obedience  from  them  ;  (3)  all 
'  Mansi,  xxvi.  1139,  1220;  xxvii.  366. 


360     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

sentences  of  every  kind  pronounced  or  to  be  pronounced  by 
either  or  both  of  the  pretenders  to  the  prejudice  of  the  union 
against  any  one  who  has  subtracted  or  who  shall  subtract  his 
obedience  are  hereby  declared  to  be  null  and  void  ;  (4)  every 
one,  even  cardinals,  although  they  be  judges  in  this  council, 
is  empowered  to  give  evidence ;  (5)  the  commissioners  to  take 
evidence  are  not  to  adhere  literally  to  the  articles  delivered  to 
them  at  the  fifth  session,  but  may  omit  any  or  add  thereto, 
and  may  send  elsewhere,  specially  to  Florence,  to  take  evidence.' 
When  this  decree  was  put  to  the  council  there  was  a  general 
cry  of  Placet^  but  the  unanimity  was  broken  by  the  voice  of  a 
dissentient  Englishman.  He  was  an  adherent  of  Pope  Gregory, 
and  sturdily  voted  against  the  decree.  On  being  asked  by 
whose  mandate  he  was  there  present,  he  confessed  that  he  had 
no  mandate,  whereupon  he  was  summarily  ejected  and  cast 
into  prison  that  proper  inquiry  might  be  made  about  him. 
The  importunate  Englishman  being  thus  turned  out  amid 
confusion,  '  confusione  ejectus^  ^  what  further  happened  to  him 
is  not  told  :  possibly  he  was  forgotten  ;  at  all  events  it  is  con- 
soling to  reflect  that  he  had  no  standing  whatever,  that  his 
was  but  a  casual  expression  of  lay  opinion,  a  mere  voice  from 
the  inane  breaking  the  calm  unanimity  of  the  clerical  Council 
of  Pisa. 

That  council  had  been  sitting  now  for  nearly  two  months, 
and  all  that  it  had  done,  beyond  rejecting  the  proposals  for 
adjournment  made  by  King  Rupert  and  Carlo  Malatesta,  was 
to  find  that  it  was  a  regularly  constituted  QEcumenical  Council, 
empowered  to  provide  for  the  unity  of  the  Church,  and  that 
the  two  rival  Popes  were  contumacious  in  refusing  to  appear 
before  it.  Seeing  that  the  general  opinion  beforehand  had 
been  that  neither  Pope  would  appear,  the  council  had  not 
made  much  headway.  The  commission  which  it  had  appointed 
to  conduct  the  process  against  the  Popes  had  meantime  heard 
many  witnesses  and  had  prepared  a  report.  This  was  read ; 
and  it  was  so  lengthy  that  the  mere  reading  occupied  the  tenth 
and  eleventh  sessions,  held  on  the  22nd  and  23rd  May,  The 
charges  proved  were  set  forth,  with  the  number  and  the  rank 
of  the  witnesses  to  each.     As  regards  the  majority  of  them, 

Mansi,  xxvii.  395. 


THE  WAY  OF  A  COUNCIL  361 

notoriety  was  taken  as  proof ;  it  was  not  necessary  to  prove 
that  a  fact  existed,  it  was  enough  to  prove  that  the  allegation 
was  notorious.  '  Rumour  painted  full  of  tongues '  was  accepted 
as  evidence;  her  '  surmises,  jealousies,  conjectures,'  were  taken 
for 'confirmations  strong  as  proofs  of  Holy  Writ/  On  this 
point  there  was  no  doubt.    The  charges  enunciated  were  proved. 

The  question  which  troubled  the  council  was  as  to  the  offence 
constituted  by  the  cliarges  proved.  The  doctrine  of  the  canon 
law  was  that  a  Pope  could  only  be  deposed  for  heresy.  The 
new  doctrine  of  constructive  heresy  had  received  the  sanction 
of  the  Universities  of  Paris  and  Bologna,  but  it  was  felt  to  be 
novel  :  it  was  not  preached  at  the  council  itself.  Jean  Gerson 
was  absent ;  Pierre  d'Ailly  was  silent.  Heresy  was  a  matter 
of  faith;  schism  was  a  matter  of  conduct.  A  man's  conduct 
might  be  faulty,  as  that  of  all  men  is,  while  his  faith  might 
be  unimpeachable.  Would  any  defect  in  conduct  amount  to 
a  defect  in  faith  .?  Even  Louis  of  Bavaria  had  alleged  a  defect 
in  faith,  the  disbelief  in  Christ's  poverty,  against  John  the 
Twenty-second,  when  he  sought  to  impeach  iiim  for  heresy. 
Did  the  attachment  to  power,  the  collusion,  the  bad  faith,  the 
tricks  and  devices  of  the  rival  Popes  really  amount  to  heresy  ?^ 
Eighty-four  witnesses  had  been  examined,  ten  of  them  twice  ; 
most  of  them  were  Italians,  a  large  number  were  French  ; 
officials  of  the  Curia  had  testified  against  their  masters ;  four- 
teen cardinals,  the  generals  of  the  Franciscans,  the  Carmelites, 
the  Austin  Friars  and  of  other  orders,  Simon  de  Cramaud, 
Gilles  des  Champs,  the  aged  Robert  the  Hermit,  and  others 
had  given  evidence.  Still  the  council  was  not  content.  At 
their  twelfth  session,  held  on  the  25th  May,  they  passed  a 
resolution  that  having  regard  to  the  notoriety,  the  scandal, 
and  the  danger  which  would  arise  from  further  delav,  the 
commissioners  should  be  empowered  to  take  further  evidence 
and  be  allowed  to  send  to  Siena  and  Lucca  for  the  purpose. 
What  they  desired  above  all  to  avoid  was  the  possibility  of  the 
present  proceedings  being  reopened  at  any  future  time  as 
insufficient.  2 

At  the  close  of  the  eleventh  session  there  arrived  a  messenger 
from  Pope  Benedict  with  Bulls  which  he  delivered  to  his  old 

^  Valois,  iv.  92.  -  Mansi,  xxvii.  399. 


362     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

cardinals.  They  hesitated  to  open  them,  but  on  the  advice  of 
the  Patriarch  of  Alexandria,  Cardinal  Filargi  broke  the  seals. 
The  Bulls  contained  sentences  of  excommunication  and  other 
penalties  against  those  who  had  disobeyed  his  former  letters, 
and  also  a  warning  and  a  prohibition  against  the  election  of 
any  new  Pope.  The  council  was  greatly  cheered  by  the  receipt 
of  these  Bulls,  for  they  proved  conclusively  that  Benedict  had 
received  the  requisition  to  attend,  that  it  was  useless  to  expect 
him,  and  that  he  was  veritably  obstinate  and  contumacious. 
Pope  Benedict  in  fact,  though  his  obedience  was  sorely  circum- 
scribed, firmly  believed  that  he  was  the  only  true  Pastor  of  the 
only  true  Church,  and  behaved  accordingly.^ 

Thirty-two  new  witnesses  were  examined,  their  depositions 
supporting  ten  fresh  charges.  The  new  evidence  was  of  a 
different  complexion,  being  on  the  point  of  orthodoxy.  It  was 
said  that  Pope  Gregory  had  aforetime  been  prosecuted  for 
heresy  before  the  Holy  Inquisition,  and  moreover  that  he  had 
consulted  a  Jew  necromancer  named  Helias.  Against  Bene- 
dict the  allegations  were  more  numerous  and  serious.  He  had 
always  exhibited  a  strange  tenderness  toward  heretics,  and  a 
strange  ferocity  toward  the  faithful.  Hei  had  kept  two 
demons  shut  up  in  a  little  box ;  he  had  searched  all  Spain  and 
even  among  the  Saracens  for  books  of  magic  ;  he  had  given  a 
living  in  Cordova  to  a  clerk  who  had  brought  him  a  book 
showing  the  magical  character  of  Christ's  miracles ;  he  habitu- 
ally summoned  magicians  to  assist  him,  seeing  that  he  himself 
was  an  inexpert  necromancer;  he  had  been  promised  that 
three  demons,  the  God  of  the  Winds,  the  Prince  of  Sedition, 
and  the  Revealer  of  Hidden  Treasure,  were  to  put  him  in 
possession  of  Rome.  It  was  alleged  that  magicians,  one  of 
them  a  mysterious  man  with  a  long  black  beard,  consorted 
with  him  at  Porto  Venere ;  that  a  tower  had  been  struck  by  a 
thunderbolt  while  he  was  doing  his  magic ;  that  the  powers  of 
Hell  accompanied  him  whithersoever  he  went.^  Armed  with 
evidence  of  this  kind,  there  was  little  doubt  that  the  council 
would  be  able  to  find  both  Popes  guilty  of  heresy.  For  the 
present,  however,  it  was  held  in  reserve.  The  ordinary  legal 
mind  will  at  once  appreciate  the  facts  that  the  case  against 
1  Mansi,  xxvii.  398.  "^  Valois,  iv.  92-7. 


THE  WAY  OF  A  COUNCIL  368 

each  Pope  was  entirely  r.r  parte,  and  that  the  evidence  was 
mainly  mere  hearsay. 

The  question  of  the  heresy  of  Gregory  and  Benedict  was 
very  troubling  to  the  hearts  and  consciences  of  the  I'^athcrs 
at  Pisa.  On  the  28th  May  the  Bishop  of  Novara  gathered 
together  an  assembly  of  archbishops  and  bishops,  of  doctors, 
licentiates,  and  masters  of  theology,  in  the  Sacristy  of  the 
Franciscans  to  discuss  the  matter.  They  were  more  than  a 
hundred  in  number :  one  quarter  came  from  the  University 
of  Paris,  others  from  Cambridge,  Toulouse,  and  other  univer- 
sities, others  were  friars  of  different  orders,  a  branch  of  the 
Church  specially  devoted  to  the  study  of  theology.  They 
decided  unanimously  that  both  rivals  were  schismatics  and 
heretics,  and  were  liable  to  be  deprived  of  the  administration 
of  the  papacy  for  that  reason.  The  Bishop  announced  that 
the  Universities  of  Florence  and  Bologna  were  of  the  like 
opinion ;  one  hundred  and  twenty  masters  of  the  latter  uni- 
versity had  given  their  written  adhesion  thereto.  At  the 
thirteenth  session  of  the  council,  held  the  next  day,  Master 
Pierre  Plaoul  in  his  sermon  stated  that  the  University  of 
Paris  was  convinced  that  Benedict  was  a  schismatic  and  a 
heretic  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  terms,  and  w^as  liable  to  be 
cut  off  from  the  Church  of  God  and  from  all  right  to  the 
Papacy  ;  the  same  opinion  was  held  by  the  Universities  of 
Angers,  Orleans,  and  Toulouse.  In  conclusion,  he  read  the 
protocol  prepared  by  the  Bishop  of  Novara  on  the  previous 
day's  proceedings.  At  the  close  of  the  session  an  advocate 
of  the  council  rose  and  demanded  that  an  instrument  be  pre- 
pared, and  a  term  of  eight  days  fixed  for  the  final  citation 
and  appearance  of  the  rival  Popes ;  and  a  citation  was  accord- 
ingly fixed  to  tlie  doors  of  the  cathedral  and  in  other  public 
places  in  Pisa.^ 

On  this  same  day  eight  of  the  ambassadors  from  the 
University  of  Paris  wrote  to  their  brethren  reporting 
progress  up  to  date.  They  say  that  the  number  of  theo- 
logians present  at  the  Bishop  of  Novara's  conference  was  one 
hundred  and  twenty-three,  of  whom  eighty  '  -sont  vos  sujct.s  it 
soumis^  thus  showing  the  great  predominance  of  the  French 
'  Mansi,  xxvi.  1144,  1224;  xxvii.  399-401. 


364     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

element  at  the  council.  In  their  letter  they  mention  that 
Gregory  had  sent  a  Bull  to  the  English,  trying  to  persuade 
them  to  take  the  side  of  King  Rupert,  but  in  vain,  seeing 
that  the  men  of  England,  Germany,  Bohemia,  Apulia,  France, 
Cyprus,  Rhodes,  and  Italy  were  all  of  one  mind  in  this  matter. 
Very  few  prelates,  they  say,  had  come  from  Hungary,  because 
their  King  was  at  war  with  the  unbelievers.  In  conclusion,  they 
refer  to  the  terrible  Bull  which  had  come  from  Pope  Benedict.^ 

The  further  evidence  taken  by  the  commissioners  was  read  at 
the  fourteenth  session,  held  on  Saturday  the  1st  June.  At  first 
the  reader  wished  to  give  merely  a  summary,  but  he  was  directed 
to  proceed  as  in  the  tenth  and  eleventh  sessions.  He  concluded 
by  informing  his  auditors  that  the  complete  record  with  the 
detailed  depositions  of  the  different  witnesses  would  be  on 
view  at  the  Convent  of  the  Carmelites  on  the  Monday  and 
Tuesday  following.^  The  commissioners  who  had  taken  the 
evidence  were  at  the  cloister  on  tliose  days  at  the  hours  of 
tierce  and  vespers,  but  no  one  desired  to  inspect  the  record. 
The  council  had  now  completed  its  preliminary  preparations : 
Pope  Benedict  had  threatened  his  former  cardinals  with  pains 
and  penalties ;  Pope  Gregory  had  made  his  despairing  effort 
to  detach  the  English  party ;  both  attempts  had  failed. 
Everything  was  now  ready  for  the  final  blow.  It  was  delivered 
on  the  5th  June  1409. 

Wednesday  the  5th  June,  the  Eve  of  Corpus  Christi,  the 
date  of  the  fifteenth  session  of  the  Council  of  Pisa,  was  in 
the  eyes  of  all  there  assembled  and  in  the  eyes  of  the  vast 
majority  of  Christendom,  a  day  big  with  the  fate  of  both 
'  pretenders  to  the  Papacy.'  After  the  usual  sacred  cere- 
monies in  the  Cathedral,  an  advocate  of  the  council  mounted 
the  pulpit  and  demanded  that  the  rival  Popes  be  summoned 
to  appear.  On  this  Cardinal  Oddo  Colonna,  who  was  after- 
wards Pope  Martin  the  Fifth,  and  the  younger  Cardinal  of 
Sant  Angelo,  Stefaneschi,  who  had  been  promoted  by  Inno- 
cent in  1405,  proceeded  to  the  doors  of  the  Cathedral;  they 
were  accompanied  by  two  archbishops  and  several  doctors  and 
notaries.  In  a  loud  voice  the  rivals  were  thrice  summoned  to 
appear  in  person  or  by  deputy.  No  one  answered.  Return  was 
^  Monstrelet,  154.  -  Mansi,  xxvi.  1145,  1225. 


THE  WAY  OF  A  COUNCIL  3G5 

made  accordingly.  Then  the  advocate  asked  that  the  Patriarch 
of  Alexandria  be  required  to  read  the  definite  sentence  of 
the  council.  There  was  a  universal  murmur  of  Placet.  The 
doors  of  the  Cathedral  were  thrown  open,  and  in  the  presence 
of  a  large  throng  of  listeners  Simon  de  Cramaud,  assisted  by 
the  Patriarchs  of  Antioch  and  Jerusalem,  read  the  following 
sentence  : — 

'  In  the  name  of  Christ  Jesus :  This  holy  and  universal 
syywd,  representing  the  Church  Universal,  to  whom  the  de- 
cision of  this  matter  belongs,  being  here  assembled  by  the 
Grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  Cathedral  of  Pisa  and  sitting 
as  a  court,  having  seen  and  carefully  examined  all  and  singular 
that  has  been  produced,  proved  and  moved  in  the  present  case 
of  the  union  of  the  Church,  the  Faith,  and  the  Schism  against 
Petrus  de  Luna,  formerly  known  as  Benedict  the  Thirteenth, 
and  Angelus  Corrario,  formerly  known  as  Gregory  the  Twelfth, 
which  is  more  fully  set  forth  in  the  present  process ;  and 
having  examined  generally  all  that  has  influenced  and  moved 
the  said  council  to  pass  its  present  definitive  sentence ;  and 
having  had  frequent  conferences  together,  and  also  with  a 
large  number  of  masters  of  theology  and  of  doctors  of  civil 
and  canon  law ;  and  having  after  mature  deliberation  arrived 
at  a  unanimous  conclusion ;  doth  hereby  in  the  best  and  most 
lawful  manner  possible  pronounce,  declare  and  decree  that  all 
the  crimes,  excesses  and  other  matters  necessary  to  the  said 
decision,  set  forth  by  the  learned  masters  Henricus  de  Monte- 
leone,  Joannes  de  Scribanis,  and  Bertoldus  Wildungen,  the 
promoters,  instructors,  solicitors,  and  proctors  appointed  to 
conduct  the  present  case  for  the  extirpation  of  this  detestable 
and  inveterate  Schism  and  the  union  and  re-establishment  of 
Holy  Mother  Church,  against  the  fo renamed  Petrus  de  Lmia 
and  Angelus  Corrario,  damnably  contending  for  the  Papacy, 
and  called  by  some  Benedict  the  Thirteenth  and  Gregory  the 
Twelfth,  presented  and  exhibited  in  petition  before  this  sacred 
and  universal  synod,  have  been  and  are  true  and  notorimis; 
that  the  aforesaid  Angelus  Corrario  and  Petrus  de  Luna,  pre- 
tenders to  the  Papacy,  have  been  and  are  notorious  schis- 
matics, nourishers,  defenders,  approvers,  fautors,  and  per- 
tinacious maintainers  of  the  ancient  Schism  ;  that  they  are 


366    IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

also  notorious  heretics  and  have  departed  from  the  faith,  and 
are  guilty  of  the  notorious  and  enormous  crimes  of  breaking 
their  oaths  and  vows,  in  most  evident  and  manifest  manner, 
by   their    incorrigible    conduct    and    contumacy    notoriously 
scandalising  God's   Holy  and   Universal  Church;    that  they 
have  thus  rendered  themselves  unworthy  of  all  honour  and 
dignity,  and  of  the  Papacy ;  and  that  by  reason  of  the  afore- 
said iniquities,   excesses   and    crimes,  they   are    rejected   and 
deprived  by  God   and   the  sacred   canons   from    all   rule  or 
authority,  and  are  cut  off  from  the  Church.     And  further- 
more,  the   council    by  this   definite   sentence  deprives,  casts 
down,  and   deposes   Petrus  and  Angelus,   each   and   both   of 
them,    forbidding    them    to    bear    themselves    as    sovereign 
pontiff,   and    declaring   further   that    the    Roman   Church    is 
vacant.'     The  council  then  proceeds  to  release  all  Christians 
from  their  obedience  to  the  rival  Popes,  to  absolve  all  those 
holding   imperial,    royal,  or  other  dignity  from  their  oaths 
or  engagements  toward  them,  and  to  threaten  with  excom- 
munication  all    who    shall    receive    or    succour    them.      The 
council  next  declares  null  and  void  all  sentences  of  excom- 
munication, all  pains  and  penalties  decreed  by  either  Pope, 
and    all    promotions    to    the   cardinalate   made    by    Angelus 
Corrario  since  the  3rd  May  1408,  or  by  Petrus  de  Luna  since 
the  15th  June  of  the   same  year.      All  future   processes  of 
either  pretender  were  finally  declared  to  be  null  and  void. 

The  reading  of  this  lengthy  sentence^  having  been  con- 
cluded, all  joined  in  singing  the  Te  Deum.  A  solemn  pro- 
cession was  ordered  for  the  morrow ;  and  it  was  further 
ordained  that  no  person  should  leave  Pisa  without  permis- 
sion or  without  having  signed  the  sentence  which  had  just 
been  pronounced.  Great  was  the  rejoicing;  the  magistrates 
proclaimed  the  sentence  of  deposition  with  the  sound  of 
trumpets  throughout  the  city;  the  bells  of  the  Leaning 
Tower  rang  out ;  and  from  every  church  steeple  in  Pisa  the 
joyful  news  was  re-echoed ;  the  surrounding  village  churches, 
one  by  one,  caught  up  the  message  and  sent  it  on.  In  four 
hours  the  tidings  reached  Florence.  Every  one  thought  that 
now  at  last  the  Great  Schism  was  at  an  end. 

1  Mansi,  xxvi.  1 146-8, 


THE  WAY  OF  A  COUNCIL  367 

Having  deposed  both  Popes  and  having  declared  the  papal 
throne  to  be  vacant,  the  next  importtmt  business  before  the 
council  was  the  election  of  a  new  Pope.  Nine  days  was  the 
period  of  mourning  on  the  death  of  a  Pope,  and  then  the 
cardinals  entered  into  conclave  ;  hence,  as  Benedict  and  Gregory 
had  met  their  official  death  on  the  5th  June,  it  was  meet  that 
the  conclave  should  be  closed  on  the  15th.  Who  was  to  be 
the  new  Pope  ?  This  was  the  question  for  whose  solution 
Charles  of  France  and  Ladislas  of  Naples,  more  than  all  other 
monarchs,  were  waiting  with  anxious  expectation.  Would  the 
new  Pope  be  a  Frenchman  ?  Would  he  at  least  be  favourable 
to  the  claim  of  the  Duke  of  Anjou  to  the  crown  of  Naples.'' 
It  was  to  prevent  such  a  Pope  being  elected  that  Ladislas  had 
endeavoured,  but  in  vain,  to  overawe  the  council.  The 
excitement  soon  became  apparent  in  Pisa. 

The  first  point  to  decide  was  as  to  who  should  be  the  electors. 
Should  the  cardinals  exercise  their  ordinary  right.'*  The  objec- 
tion was  that  all  the  cardinals,  save  one,  had  been  promoted  by 
the  two  Popes  who  had  just  been  deposed  for  heresy  and  schism. 
An  election  by  such  a  body  might  to  many  appear  to  be  tainted. 
The  French  party  held  a  long  consultation.  The  Patriarch 
of  Alexandria  proposed  that  it  would  be  desirable  on  this 
occasion  to  depart  from  the  regular  rule  and  to  allow  the 
council  to  elect  a  new  Pope.  This  proposal  at  once  raised 
alarm  at  the  French  designs.  W^hen  the  Fathers  considered 
the  strength  of  the  clerical  contingent  from  France  and 
Provence,  when  they  reflected  that  Genoa  and  Leghorn  were 
in  her  hands  and  that  Florence  was  allied  with  her,  the  object 
of  the  ambitious  Simon  de  Cramaud  became  too  patent,  even 
though  his  scheme  was  backed  by  the  authority  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Paris.  The  other  nations  took  alarm ;  they  were 
persuaded  that  an  election  by  the  council  would  mean  the 
election  of  a  Frenchman.  The  decision  was  postponed  from 
the  sixteenth  session,  held  on  the  10th  June,  to  the  seven- 
teenth, held  on  the  13th.  By  that  day  a  way  out  of  the 
difficulty  had  been  found.  The  cardinals  were  to  proceed  to 
election,  but  on  this  occasion  they  were  to  proceed  not  as 
cardinals  promoted  by  either  of  the  heretical  Popes,  but  as 
cardinals  acting  under  the  authority  of  the  General  Council ; 


368     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

and  they  were  exhorted  to  elect  the  new  Pope  with  charity, 
and  so  unanimously  that  no  scintilla  of  discord  should  possibly 
appear.^  The  present  exceptional  proceeding  was  not  to 
prejudice  their  usual  rights  on  any  future  occasion.  While 
High  Mass  was  being  sung,  the  cardinals  retired  behind  the 
altar  and  swore  to  elect  a  Pope,  either  unanimously  or  by  a 
two-thirds  majority.  The  Podesta,  the  Captain,  and  the 
Vicar  of  Pisa,  in  the  name  of  the  Republic  of  Florence,  also 
took  the  customary  oath  for  the  security  of  the  conclave. 
The  French  party  did  not  like  the  compromise,  but  were 
constrained  to  accept  the  rebuif.  Simon  de  Cramaud  must 
have  felt  his  hopes  fading  away. 

There  had  been  other  business  also  at  the  sixteenth  session. 
The  Cardinal  Antoine  de  Chalant  had  appeared.  The  days 
of  grace  allowed  at  the  fourth  session  were  long  passed  by; 
but  the  Cardinal  of  Albano  represented  to  the  council  that 
the  Cardinal  of  Saint  Mary  in  Via  Lata,  as  he  had  been 
created  by  Benedict  in  1404,  had  remained  absent  so  long 
in  the  hope  of  overcoming  the  obstinacy  of  his  master,  and 
that  he  had  only  abandoned  his  task  when  he  recognised  its 
utter  hopelessness.  The  council  accepted  the  excuse,  and  in 
solemn  silence  the  new  arrival  took  his  seat  among  his  peers. 
He  was  a  Savoyard  of  noble  family,  and  had  formerly  been 
chancellor  to  the  Count  of  his  native  province.  Men  said 
that  he  had  come  to  Pisa  hoping  that  he  might  be  acceptable 
to  both  French  and  Italians  as  their  future  pontiff,  seeing 
that  he  might  be  accounted  the  countryman  of  either.  It  was 
also  rumoured  that  he  tried  to  detach  Boniface  Ferrier  from 
the  obedience  of  Benedict.  '  What  is  the  good  of  going  to 
Pisa  ?'  inquired  Boniface  ;  '  they  will  only  make  another  Pope, 
and  he  will  be  an  anti-pope.'  'No  matter,  provided  they 
make  one,'  answered  De  Chalant ;  '  let  him  be  anti-pope  or 
devil,  he  will  improve  with  keeping  {postea  purgabitury^ 
About  the  same  time  as  De  Chalant  arrived  two  other 
cardinals,  Louis  de  Bar,  who  had  started  with  the  luckless 
Archbishop  of  Reims,  and  Antonio  Caivo,  one  of  the  two 
Cardinals  of  Saint  Praxedes.  Another  arrival  was  more 
important  than  either  of  these. 

1  Mansi,  xxvii.  408.  ^  Lenfant,  i.  282. 


THE  WAY  OF  A  COUNCIL  369 

Another  resolution  taken  at  the  sixteenth  session  testifies  its 
recognition  of  the  widespread  feeling  in  favour  of  reform  of 
the  Church.  This  was  the  crying  want  of  the  age.  Church- 
men themselves  were  alive  to  the  simony  and  venality  which 
disgraced  the  Curia,  and  even  the  Universities  cried  out  against 
the  excessive  taxation,  while  tlie  lay  world  stood  aghast  at  the 
moral  depravity  and  turpitude  which  spread,  like  a  loathsome 
sore,  over  so  many  of  the  secular  and  regular  clergy  alike. 
The  nunneries  were  often  mere  brothels,  the  confessional  was  too 
frequently  a  trap  for  innocent  or  comely  wives  and  daughters. 
Radical  reform  was  necessary.  It  was  opportune,  therefore, 
when  the  Archbishop  of  Pisa  read  a  declaration  signed  by  all 
the  cardinals,  to  the  effect  that  whoever  should  be  elected 
Pope  would  continue  the  present  council  until,  by  its  aid,  he 
had  provided  for  the  necessary,  reasonable,  and  adequate 
reformation  of  the  Church  in  its  head  and  its  members.  On 
the  proposal  of  the  Fiscal  Advocate,  measures  were  taken  to 
announce  the  deposition  of  the  rival  Popes  to  the  different 
countries  of  Christendom.  Antonius  of  Portugruario  was  also 
declared  to  be  the  rightful  Patriarch  of  Aquileia.  Finally, 
having  settled  who  were  to  elect  the  new  Pope,  it  was  decreed 
at  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  session  that  on  the  following 
day,  the  14th  June,  a  solemn  procession  should  proceed  from 
the  Church  of  Saint  Martin  to  the  Cathedral,  there  to  entreat 
the  divine  aid  in  the  choice  of  the  new  Pope. 

Cardinal  Baldassare  Cossa,  the  guide  and  author  of  the 
council,  reached  Pisa  just  in  time  for  the  new  election ;  the 
deposition  of  the  rival  Popes  had  occurred  three  days  after  he 
left  Bologna.  He  had  had  much  to  do  there  this  year.  He 
had  known  beforehand  that  he  would  have  to  protect  the 
council  against  the  army  of  Ladislas ;  and  if  the  council 
was  able  to  do  its  work  in  peace,  he  desired  to  be  at  Pisa 
at  least  in  time  for  the  new  election.  He  had  therefore  to 
arrange  that  Bologna  should  be  secure  and  undisturbed  during 
his  absence.  He  began  by  appointing  his  own  man,  Nicolo 
Angelelli,  to  the  command  of  the  Castle,  in  place  of  Count 
Manfred,  whom  he  could  not  trust.  The  Count  went  off  to 
his  relative,  the  Constable  Alberigo  da  Barbiano,  and  accom- 
panied him  in  his  unsuccessful  attempt  on  Romagna.     Then 

2  a 


370     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

the  Legate  got  fourteen  of  his  own  confidants  elected  among 
the  City  Council  of  Bologna.  He  made  arrangements  for 
fortifying  the  fortress  of  Crespellano  in  the  level  country.  On 
the  28th  March  he  had  seen  his  two  fellow-countrymen,  the 
Cardinals  Carracciolo  and  Maramaur,  start  for  the  council : 
the  former  was  a  personal  friend  of  Baldassare  Cossa ;  the 
latter  had  just  returned  from  the  Diet  at  Frankfurt.  At  the 
same  time  the  French  ambassadors  left  Bologna  for  Venice, '  to 
work  for  the  union  of  Christendom."'  Then  had  come  the 
attempt  of  Ladislas's  general,  Ottobuon  Terzo,  to  kill  the 
Marquess  of  Ferrara,  and  his  own  death  at  the  hand  of  Sforza 
Attendolo,  to  the  great  joy  of  all.  After  the  King  of  Naples 
had  been  thus  checkmated,  the  way  was  comparatively  clear 
for  Baldassare  Cossa  to  proceed  to  Pisa,  and  on  the  2nd  June, 
accompanied  by  many  learned  men,  in  whose  society  he  always 
took  pleasure,  he  departed.^  He  was  in  Florence  on  the  12th,^ 
and  reached  Pisa  just  in  time  to  enter  the  conclave  with  the 
other  cardinals.     He  was,  in  fact,  in  the  city  on  the  14th. 

On  this  day  the  grand  procession  took  place ;  cardinals, 
patriarchs,  archbishops,  bishops,  abbots,  and  clergy  took  part 
therein.  They  marched  from  Saint  Martin's  Church,  south  of 
the  river,  over  the  wooden  bridge,  up  the  Via  del  Borgo  to  the 
Cathedral,  as  they  had  marched  on  Lady  Day;  and  in  the 
Cathedral  Cardinal  de  Thury  again  celebrated  High  Mass. 
These  occasional  celebrations  seemed  to  be  all  the  honour  he  was 
like  to  receive  in  return  for  his  frequent  presents  of  good  wine 
to  the  cardinals.  The  eighteenth  session  of  the  council  then 
commenced.  Ambassadors,  the  Chancellor,  and  three  cavaliers 
had  arrived  from  the  King  of  Aragon,  and  demanded  audience. 
This  was  granted,  but  they  were  first  required  to  produce  their 
credentials,  for  which  they  sent  to  their  lodgings.  The 
Chancellor  of  the  King  of  Aragon  then  ascended  the  pulpit ; 
he  set  forth  the  zeal  of  his  sovereign  for  the  unity  of  the 
Church ;  he  requested  to  be  informed  of  all  that  this  con- 
gregation—  he  carefully  avoided  calling  it  a  council — had 
hitherto  done ;  he  announced  that  the  envoys  from  Pope 
Benedict  were  then  in  Pisa  and  desired  an  audience,  and  he 
carefully  guarded  himself  against  the  supposition  that  his 
1  Ghirar,  ii.  578-9.  "  Valois,  iv.  105. 


THE  WAV  OF  A  COUNCIL  371 

presence  there  should  in  any  way  countenance  any  of  the 
resolutions  at  which  the  honourable  Fathers  had  arrived. 
The  mention  of  Benedict  as  still  Pope  was  greeted  with  hisses 
and  laughter.  The  Fiscal  Advocate  answered  for  the  council, 
thanking  the  King  for  his  good  will,  promising  a  commission 
to  inform  the  ambassadors  of  all  that  had  hitherto  happened, 
and  appointing  certain  others  to  examine  the  powers  of  the 
envoys  from  Petrus  de  Luna,  and  to  grant  them  an  audience  if 
it  were  fitting.  The  Chancellor  in  his  turn  smiled  at  the  con- 
cession of  granting  even  a  partial  audience,  through  a  com- 
mission, to  the  envoys  of  one  who  had  been  solemnly  declared 
heretic ;  it  was  an  inconsistency,  but  compromise  was  then,  as 
now,  of  the  essence  of  politics. 

The  commission  met  at  Saint  Martin's  Church  that  same 
afternoon.  The  royal  ambassadors  and  the  envoys  from 
Benedict  were  present.  The  obstinate  little  Pope  had  delayed 
in  despatching  his  nuncios,  he  had  neglected  to  provide  them 
with  the  powers  which  the  Council  of  Perpignan  had  voted. 
They  had  been  detained  at  Nimes  by  order  of  the  King  of 
France;  they  had  been  stopped  by  a  captain  from  Pisa;  and 
now,  being  expected  ever  since  the  8th  May,  they  had  arrived 
after  Pope  Benedict  had  been  formally  deposed.  They  in- 
cluded in  their  number  the  Archbishop  of  Tarragona,  the 
Bishops  of  Siguenza,  Mende,  and  Senez,  and  the  Carthusian 
Prior,  Boniface  Ferrier.  With  much  difficulty  did  they  gain 
an  entrance  to  the  church,  for  the  common  people  hooted 
them  as  if  they  had  been  Jews.  They  were  received  by  twelve 
cardinals,  among  wjiom  was  Baldassare  Cossa.  In  the  church 
itself  the  envoys,  as  had  been  formerly  arranged,  were  not 
greeted  '  with  honour.'  The  sentence  passed  against  Pope 
Benedict  was  read  to  them,  and  three  cardinals  were  deputed  to 
hear  what  they  had  to  say.  The  Archbishop  of  Tarragona 
began  to  speak  :  '  We  are  the  nuncios  of  the  honourable  Pope 
Benedict.'  There  arose  an  uproar  immediately.  The  crowd 
had  pressed  into  the  building.  '  The  nuncio  of  a  heretic  and 
a  schismatic  art  thou,'  shouted  one  of  them.  When  order  was 
restored  tiie  Bishop  of  Mende  requested  a  hearing.  A  friendly 
Florentine,  who  had  property  in  Aragon,  reminded  him  that 
nothing  could  be  said  or  done  to  the  disrespect  or  detriment 


372     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

of  the  council.  Again  he  inquired  if  he  might  speak  freely. 
The  Captain  of  Pisa  answered  that  under  the  oath  which  he 
and  other  officers  had  sworn  he  could  allow  nothing  to  the 
prejudice  of  the  approaching  election;  and  the  Cardinal  of 
Aquileia  assured  him  that  this  condition  was  absolutely  irre- 
vocable. As  it  did  not  seem  that  they  were  to  be  allowed 
to  say  anything  to  the  point,  the  royal  ambassadors  and  the 
papal  nuncios  asked  for  a  day''s  delay  in  order  that  they  might 
consult  together  on  their  position.  They  desired  at  once  to 
return  to  their  lodgings  ;  but  this  was  impossible  owing  to  the 
excited  state  of  popular  feeling.  They  were  obliged  to  wait. 
They  had  the  fullest  powers,  they  said,  and  were  determined 
not  to  return  home  until  the  unity  of  the  Church  had  been 
accomplished ;  from  Pisa  they  would  go  on  to  Gregory  and 
would  negotiate  with  him  ;  they  asked  the  Cardinal  Legate  of 
Bologna  for  a  safe-conduct.  '  If  you  come  to  Bologna,'  said 
he,  '  with  or  without  safe-conduct,  I  will  burn  you  all  as  soon 
as  I  catch  you.'  Remarkably  frank  and  outspoken  was  Bal- 
dassare  Cossa;  this  was  his  first  public  utterance  in  the  Council 
of  Pisa.  The  envoys  knew  him  to  be  a  man  of  his  word  ;  so 
they  thought  better  of  their  project,  and,  like  Pliable  in 
Pilgrim's  Progress^  they  got  out  of  the  mire  on  that  side 
of  the  slouffh  which  was  next  to  their  own  house.  As  soon  as 
the  tumult  had  somewhat  subsided,  the  captain's  son  and 
certain  respectable  citizens  escorted  them  back  to  their  inn, 
and  that  night  the  papal  nuncios,  like  the  German  embassy 
before  them,  left  Pisa  secretly  without  taking  formal  leave 
of  any  one.  Boniface  Ferrier  was  especially  annoyed  at  the 
want  of  feeling  on  the  part  of  those  who  had  formerly  been, 
cardinals  and  prelates  under  Pope  Benedict.  Simon  de 
Cramaud  had  set  a  guard  on  the  city  gates,  but  the  nun- 
cios slipped  through,  and  the  council  saw  them  no  more,^ 

The  last  session  of  the  popeless  council  was  held  on  Satur- 
day, the  15th  June.  High  Mass  was  celebrated  by  Philippe  de 
Thury,  Archbishop  of  Lyons,  the  cardinal's  brother ;  and  the 
sermon  was  preached  by  the  Bishop  of  Novara  on  the  appro- 
priate text,  ^Eligite  meliorem  et  eumpo7iite  super  solium  '  ('  Look 
ye  out  the  best  and  meetest  and  set  him  on  the  throne ').  He 
^  Mansi,  xxvi.  1150;  Hefele,  vi.  io29-3i. 


THE  WAY  OF  A  COUNCIT.  373 

exhorted   the  cardinals  to  proceed  to  the   unanimous  choice 
of  a  good  and  worthy  ruler.     This  ended  the  session. 

At  vespers  the  twenty-four  cardinals,  the  Cardinal  Calvo 
arriving  just  in  time,  entered  the  Archbishoj^s  Talace,  a 
hundred  yards  or  so  to  the  west  of  the  Leaning  Tower,  and 
were  there  immured  in  conclave  under  the  guard  of  the  Grand 
Master  of  Rhodes  and  other  prelates,  not  to  issue  thence  until 
a  new  Pope  should  have  been  chosen.  Fourteen  of  the  car- 
dinals belonged  to  the  obedience  of  Gregory,  ten  to  that  of 
Benedict,  and  at  first  there  was  a  natural  bitterness  between 
the  two  parties.^  Bribery  was  said  to  be  rife :  every  cardinal 
had  promised  whatever  they  chose  to  ask  to  the  servants  of 
the  others ;  the  French  court  had  lavished  money ;  the  King's 
cousin,  Louis  de  Bar,  Cardinal  of  Saint  Agatha,  might  be 
chosen  ;  the  '  domestic  prophecy  '  of  Cardinal  de  Thury  might 
haply  be  fulfilled  ;  Cardinal  de  Chalant,  the  Savoyard,  might 
be  selected ;  or  Simon  de  Cramaud,  Patriarch  of  Alexandria, 
might  at  length  obtain  the  tiara  for  which  he  had  sighed 
so  long  and  worked  so  ardently.  But  since  the  French 
machinations  as  to  the  method  of  election  had  been  defeated 
there  was  but  little  chance  of  an  Ultramontane  being  selected. 
Eleven  days  the  cardinals  continued  their  consultations.  Car- 
dinal Baldassare  Cossa  was  by  common  consent  the  strongest 
and  ablest  member  of  the  college,  and  to  him  accordingly 
they  offered  the  papal  crown.  He  declined  to  accept  it,  but 
recommended  to  them  his  old  friend  and  adherent,  Petrus 
Filargi,  who  was  neither  a  Frenchman  nor  an  Italian.-  He 
was  knoAvn  to  be  an  able  man, '  a  man  of  holy  life  and  truly 
religious,"  says  the  Monk  of  Saint-Denys.  He  might  not  know 
who  were  his  father  and  his  mother,  but  that  saved  him  from 
the  trouble  and  temptation  of  providing  for  his  relations ;  he 
might  not  be  profoundly  versed  in  the  canon  and  the  civil  law, 
but  he  was  a  man  of  the  world  who  knew  many  men's  manners 
and  had  seen  many  cities;  it  was  no  ordinary  man  who  could 
win  the  confidence  of  that  astute  and  masterful  tyrant,  Gian 
Galeazzo.  His  only  serious  fault  was  that  he  sat  half  the  day 
at  table  and  had  in  his  house  four  hundred  female  servants 
clad  in  his  livery.^     Moreover  the  worthy  cardinal,  after  the 

1  Mur.  xxiv.  174.  2  Raynaldus,  viii.  286.  *  Mur.  xix.  41. 


374     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

Patriarch  of  Alexandria,  had  been  the  most  active  prelate  in 
the  affairs  of  the  Council.  For  these  recommendations,  and 
because  he  Avas  now  seventy  years  of  age,  the  cardinals  in  con- 
clave assembled  chose  Petrus  Filargi,  Archbishop  of  Milan 
and  Cardinal  of  the  Twelve  Apostles,  to  be  the  future  Pope 
of  the  Council  and  of  Christendom,  and  he  took  the  title  of 
Alexander  the  Fifth. 


asK 


I'OPK    ALKXAMH-.K     IIIK    Fll    lii. 


POPE   ALEXANDER  THE  FIFTH     375 


CHAPTER    XI 

POPE    ALEXANDER   THE    FIFTH 

Thi<:  new  Pope,  Petrus  Filargi,  'a  man  of  the  highest  know- 
ledge, in  name  and  in  reality  an  Alexander,'  is  thus  described 
in  his  epitaph  : — 

'  JJivus  Alexander,  Cretensi  oriundus  ab  ora, 
Clnuditur  hoc  saxo,  summo  venerandua  honore, 
Antea  Petrus  erat,  sed  celsa  sede  potitus, 
Quintus  Alexander  Jit,  ceii  sol  orbe  coruscans, 
Religione  minor,  post  ad  sublime  vocatus.'  ^ 

The  news  of  his  election  would  naturally  be  received  with 
great  joy  in  Milan  and  Bologna,  where  he  was  well  known,  but 
not  in  Rome,  which  was  at  that  time  occupied  by  the  troops 
of  Ladislas  of  Naples.  The  Gray  Friars  everywhere  were 
overjoyed  that  a  Franciscan  had  been  chosen  Pope;  in  Pisa 
they  were  wild  with  delight ;  '  they  ran  about  for  days 
through  the  streets  and  squares  as  if  they  were  mad,  determined 
to  get  all  the  orood  thing's  while  the  wind  blew  their  way."" 
More  especially  was  the  new  election  a  triumph  for  France  : 
Baldassare  Cossa,  and  consequently  the  new  Pope  also,  were 
devoted  to  the  French  alliance.  Cardinal  Louis  de  Bar  was 
despatched  from  Pisa  to  the  court  of  his  cousin,  and  Maitre 
Luquet  was  deputed  to  the  University  of  Paris,  The  news 
reached  that  city  on  the  evening  of  the  7th  July,  and  was 
announced  next  morning.  The  people  were  delighted  ;  they 
made  huge  bonfires ;  they  walked  in  procession,  the  parle- 
ment  accompanying  them ;  they  feasted  and  drank ;  they 
cried  with  a  loud  voice,  '  Long  live  our  Pope,  Alexander  the 
Fifth';  the  Te  Deum  was  sung,  and  the  bells  rang  through 
the  city  the  whole  night  long.^ 

^  Mur.  iii.  841-2.  -  Lenfant,  i.  292;  Valois,  iv.  10;  Wylie,  iii.  383. 


376     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

Although  the  Council  of  Pisa  had  deposed  Popes  Gregory 
and  Benedict  and  had  elected  Pope  Alexander,  there  was  still 
much  before  them  as  a  council  to  do.  There  was  the  burning 
question  of  church  reform ;  there  was  also  the  question  of  the 
reform  of  the  papal  procedure,  which  was  agitated  by  many  of 
the  bishops ;  there  was  very  much  that  a  council  ought  to  do, 
if  it  was  to  satisfy  all  the  hopes  that  had  been  raised.  But 
the  Council  of  Pisa  was  under  the  influence  of  the  cardinals  ; 
everything  was  planned  by  them  ;  what  they  proposed  was 
carried  unanimously,  and  without  them  was  nothing  done 
that  was  done.  The  cardinals,  having  elected  a  new  Pope, 
felt  that  they  had  done  the  one  thing  absolutely  needful,  and 
were  not  inclined  to  undertake  any  further  business  of  a 
difficult  or  delicate  character.  Consequently  the  remaining 
sessions  of  the  council  were  devoted  to  matters  of  a  merely 
formal  or  uncontroversial  nature.  There  were  certain  things 
which  it  was  necessary  to  adjust  before  the  council  could  rise, 
and  the  remaining  four  sessions  of  the  council  were  devoted  to 
their  regulation. 

The  sessions  of  the  council  had  necessarily  been  suspended 
while  the  cardinals  were  in  conclave.  The  twentieth  session 
was  held  on  the  1st  July  under  the  presidence  of  Pope  Alex- 
ander the  Fifth,  and  was  marked  by  an  increased  solemnity. 
Cardinal  de  Thury  again  celebrated  High  Mass,  the  Pope  pro- 
nouncing the  benediction.  Those  parts  of  the  service  which 
had  formerly  been  taken  by  a  cardinal-bishop  were  now  per- 
formed by  His  Holiness  ;  the  Orate  and  the  Erigite  Vos,  instead 
of  being  proclaimed  by  a  simple  chaplain  or  deacon,  were 
now  pronounced  by  a  cardinal-deacon  ;  and  the  Pope  was 
assisted  by  cardinals  of  the  same  rank  in  white  dalmatics  and 
mitres.  After  the  litany  Alexander  himself  read  the  remain- 
ing prayers  and  intoned  the  Veni  Creator  Splritus.  A  lofty 
seat  had  been  placed  for  him  in  front  of  the  high  altar,  and 
facing  him  were  the  Patriarchs  of  Alexandria,  Antioch,  and 
Jerusalem.  After  the  office  had  been  concluded,  the  Cardinal 
de  Chalant,  assisted  by  three  bishops,  ascended  the  pulpit 
and  read  and  published  the  decree,  from  which  it  appeared 
that  the  Pope  had  been  unanimously  elected  by  all  the 
cardinals.     A  prayer  for  the  welfare  of  the  new  pontiff*  and  of 


POPE  ALEXANDER  THE  FIFTH     877 

Holy  Church  was  then  put  up.  The  Pope  then  preached 
a  sermon  on  the  text, '  F'lct  u/ium  ovilc  ct  laim  pastor  "  ('  There 
shall  be  one  fold  and  one  shepherd  ").  As  a  prophecy  the  text 
was  premature;  as  a  statement  of  fact  it  was  inaccurate. 
Every  one  knew  that  there  were  certain  kingdoms,  such  as 
Scotland  and  Naples,  which  still  adhered  to  the  old  Popes ; 
that  although  the  greater  part  of  Christendom  might  have 
withdrawn  its  obedience  from  them,  still  the  subtraction  was 
not  universal;  and  though  Alexander  the  Fifth  and  the 
majority  of  his  audience  might  believe  that  very  shortly  the 
whole  Church  would  become  one  fold  under  one  shepherd,  still 
that  belief  was,  as  faith  too  often  is,  merely  the  '  substance  of 
things  hoped  for,  the  evidence  of  things  not  seen.'  There  were 
at  present,  and  for  some  years  there  were  still  to  be,  three  sheep- 
folds  under  three  shepherds,  as  King  Rupert  and  others  had 
foretold  ;  the  Council  of  Pisa  had  not  secured  the  unity  of  the 
Church  ;  the  Great  Schism  was  not  terminated,  but  intensified. 
The  sermon  being  over.  Cardinal  Baldassare  Cossa,  at  the 
Pope's  order,  rose  and  read  certain  newly  framed  decrees,  rati- 
fying all  that  the  cardinals  had  done  from  the  3rd  May  1408 
until  the  council  was  opened,  and  all  that  the  council  itself 
had  performed  up  to  the  present  time,  and  supplying  all 
defects,  if  any  existed.  The  Cardinal  de  Chalant  was  restored 
to  his  benefices  which  had  been  forfeited  by  his  con- 
tumacy. The  two  colleges  of  cardinals  were  then  formed  into 
a  single  college.  The  next  decree  related  to  the  reformation 
of  the  Church  in  its  head  and  its  members  :  the  Pope  requested 
the  different  nations  to  appoint  deputies,  men  of  probity,  age, 
and  capacity,  to  consult  with  him  and  his  cardinals  in  this 
matter.  Finally  the  Pope  announced  that  he  intended  to  send 
messengers,  and  he  desired  the  cardinals  and  all  who  had  taken 
part  in  the  council  to  carry  the  news,  to  all  kings  and  princes 
and  to  all  parts  of  the  world,  that  all  connected  with  his  own 
election  and  the  deposition  of  his  rivals  had  been  done 
decently  and  in  order.  To  all  of  which  proposals  the  council 
answered  in  murmuring  assent.  Placet.^ 

Sunday,  the  7th  July,  was  the  day  fixed  for  the  coronation. 
The  new  Pope,  assisted  by  the  cardinals  and  by  the  prelates  in 
'  Mansi,  xxvii.  411  12. 


378     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

their  long  copes  (pluviales)  and  white  mitres,  celebrated  Mass, 
and  then  came  out  of  the  western  door  of  the  Cathedral. 
Here,  on  the  steps  of  the  facade,  the  only  part  of  the  exterior 
which  makes  any  pretence  to  architectural  beauty  or  finish, 
a  high  throne  had  been  erected  facing  the  baptistery.  The 
Pope  took  his  seat.  The  Epistles  and  the  Gospel  were  read 
in  Hebrew,  Greek,  and  Latin.  Tow  was  solemnly  burned 
before  him,  to  show  that  the  glory  of  this  world  passeth  away. 
The  triple  crown  was  set  on  his  head  by  the  Cardinal  of 
Saluces  amid  the  shouts  of  the  spectators.  Then  His  Holiness, 
with  the  cardinals,  patriarchs,  archbishops,  bishops,  and  mitred 
abbots,  mounted  their  steeds,  duly  caparisoned  in  white  cloths 
and  trappings.  The  abbots  headed  the  procession,  followed 
by  the  bishops ;  behind  the  patriarchs  came  the  cardinals  in 
order  of  rank,  and  last  of  all  came  the  Pope  on  his  white  mule, 
clad  in  full  pontificals  and  with  the  tiara  on  his  head.  Thus 
they  rode  solemnly  through  the  streets  of  Pisa.  The  two  rival 
Popes  were  burned  in  effigy  ;  the  Jews,  as  was  customary,  met 
the  Pope  and  petitioned  for  the  confirmation  of  their  privileges  ; 
they  presented  him  with  the  book  of  their  law,  which  he  threw 
behind  him,  having  a  better  law  as  his  guide,  even  the  Law 
of  Christ.  Arriving  at  his  house,  the  Pope  dismounted,  and 
the  Captain  of  Pisa  took  the  horse  and  its  trappings  as  his 
perquisite. 

Even  before  he  was  crowned  the  new  Pope  had  given  evidence 
of  his  extravagant  and  reckless  liberality.  He  had  created 
abbots,  bishops,  and  archbishops ;  he  had  presented  benefices 
and  dispensations  to  the  servants  of  all  the  cardinals  who  had 
elected  him  ;  he  had  showered  his  bounty  without  respect  of 
persons,  acting  as  no  Pope  had  acted  for  centuries  before,  so 
that  the  more  intelligent  of  the  Curia  were  stupefied,  and 
murmured  at  his  indiscretion.^  He  thought  nothing  of  church 
dignities,  so  improvidently  did  he  distribute  them. 

The  twenty-first  session  of  the  council  was  held  on  the  10th 
July,  and  was  occupied  in  receiving  the  ambassadors  of 
Florence  and  of  Siena,  who  had  come  to  congratulate  the  new 
pontiff.  The  election  was  a  triumph  for  Florence  over  the 
King  of  Naples.     In  this  session  also  Alexander  annulled  all 

^  De  Schismate,  224. 


POPE  ALEXANDER  THE  FIT  TIT     379 

the  sentences  of  his  rivals  against  those  who  had  withdrawn 
from  their  obedience  and  had  chosen  the  path  of  neutnUitv, 
but  at  the  same  time  he  confirmed  all  their  decrees  passed  in 
matrimonial  causes.^ 

The  summer  was  wearing  on ;  it  was  hot  in  Pisa.  Many 
prelates  and  ambassadors  had  already  left,  and  many  others 
were  anxious  to  quit,  the  sunnv  city.  Accordingly  at  the  next 
session,  which  was  not  held  until  the  27th  July,  Pope  Alex- 
ander announced  that  the  work  of  the  reformation  of  the 
Church  would  be  undertaken  by  a  council  to  be  held  in  con- 
tinuation of  the  present  council  in  April  1412,  at  some  place 
to  be  hereafter  notified.  In  the  same  session  he  ratified  all  the 
provisions  of  his  rivals  in  favour  of  his  own  adherents ;  he 
renounced  his  right  to  all  outstanding  arrears  due  to  the 
Apostolic  See  from  all  churches  up  to  the  date  of  his  own 
election  ;  and  at  the  same  time  he  gave  up  all  claim  to  the 
spoils  of  deceased  prelates  and  to  the  revenues  of  vacant  bene- 
fices. This  renunciation  was  an  act  of  wise  liberality,  inasmuch 
as  it  avoided  a  number  of  claims  fruitful  of  litigation  and 
difficult  of  execution. 

The  twenty-third  and  last  session  of  the  Council  of  Pisa  was 
held  on  Wednesday  the  7th  August  1409.  It  was  decreed 
that  the  real  property  of  the  Roman  and  other  churches  should 
not  be  alienated  by  sale  or  mortgage  either  by  the  Pope 
or  by  any  other  prelate  until  the  next  general  council ;  it  was 
further  decreed  that  before  that  time  all  the  bishops  should 
hold  diocesan  councils  and  all  the  abbots  should  hold  chapters. 
The  Pope  undertook  to  send  ambassadors  to  the  kings  and 
princes  of  Christendom  and  to  the  faithful  generally  to  publish 
to  them  the  acts  of  the  Council  of  Pisa.  On  the  authority  of 
God,  of  Saint  Peter  and  Saint  Paul,  and  on  his  own  authority, 
Alexander  bestowed  plenary  absolution  on  all  who  had 
attended  the  council  and  on  the  servants  who  had  been  with 
them,  and  this  was  to  avail  even  to  the  hour  of  death.  P'inally, 
permission  was  now  given  to  all  remaining  members  to  return 
to  their  own  homes. 

Thus  ended  the  Council  of  Pisa.     It  was  uncanonical  from 
the  outset,  being  convoked  neither  by  Pope  nor  Emperor;  but 
*  Mansi,  xxvi.  1152,  1253. 


380     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

it  was  deemed  to  be  a  work  of  necessity.      The  Universities  of 
Paris  and  Bologna  approved  its  action  ;  Gerson,  D'Ailly,  and 
other   learned  prelates  wrote  lengthy  treatises  to   prove    its 
canonicity.     It  was  known  to  be  under  French  or  Burgundian 
influence  :  in  March  1409  the  cardinals  invoked  the  aid  of  the 
French  court  in  behalf  of  the  Pope  whom  they  were  to  elect. 
It  was  attended  by  representatives  of  the  greater   part    of 
Christian  Europe  ;  and  when  once  Carlo  Malatesta  and  the 
envoys  of  King  Rupert  and  Pope  Benedict  had  been  dismissed, 
its    unanimity   was    wonderful.      Everything    was    carefully 
arranged   beforehand,  and   a   unanimous   murmur    of  Placet 
greeted  nearly  every  decision.     Nevertheless  it  had  but  little 
confidence  in  itself;  it  did  protest  too  much,  and  one  protesta- 
tion was  used  to  fortify  another.     The  only  person  who  raised 
a  dissentient  voice,  a  sturdy  Englishman,  was  hunted  from  the 
session  and  clapped  into  prison.     It  acted  upon  the   novel 
assumption  that  the  rival  Popes  were  bound    to  answer  its 
summons  and  to  present  themselves  before  it,  and  that  they 
were  guilty  of  contumacy  in  not  appearing.     It  elected  a  new 
Pope;  but  although  he  was  obeyed  by  the  greater  part  of 
Christendom,  the  unity  of  the  Church  had  not  been  achieved : 
instead  of  two  Popes  there  was  now  a  trinity.     Spain,  Scot- 
land,  Sardinia,   Corsica,   Armagnac,   Foix,  and   Beam,   still 
acknowledged  the  obedience  of  Benedict ;  parts  of  Italy  and 
of  Germany,  and  the  northern  kingdoms,  were  still  faithful  to 
Gregory.^ 

In  the  matter  of  the  moral  reform  of  the  Church, 
that  reformation  for  which  all  Europe  was  yearning,  the 
council  did  nothing.  Possibly  it  did  the  best  it  could  at  the 
time  in  insisting  that  diocesan  and  conventual  councils  should 
be  held  to  digest  the  necessary  measures.^  In  the  matter  of 
internal  reform  of  administration  there  was  also  much  that 
called  for  immediate  attention,  although  here  the  path  of 
reform  was  not  so  clear.  'The  prelates  and  proctors  of 
England,  France,  Germany,  Poland,  Bohemia,  and  Provence, 
presented  to  the  Pope  a  list  of  grievances  to  which  they  called 
his  attention,  as  deviating  from  the  old  laws  and  customs  of 
the  Church.  They  enumerated  translations  of  bishops  against 
1  Ilergenroether,  ii.  846.  ^  Hefele,  vi.  1042. 


POPE  ALEXANDER  THE  FIFTH     381 

their  will,  Papal  reservations  and  provisions,  destruction  of  the 
rights  of  patronage  of  bishops  and  chapters,  the  exaction  of 
first-fruits  and  tenths,  grants  of  exemptions  from  the  visita- 
torial power  of  bishops,  the  excessive  liberty  of  appeal  to  the 
Pope  in  cases  which  had  not  been  heard  in  the  inferior  courts.'^ 
The  French  court  and  the  University  of  Paris  wished  to  obtain 
from  the  Council  of  Pisa  the  restoration  of  the  liberties  of  the 
Gallican  Church;  they  wanted  the  Pajiacy  to  go  back  a 
hundred  years  and  to  renounce  all  those  rights  and  preroga- 
tives which  it  had  asserted  or  created  in  the  interval.  These 
were  matters  which  affected  the  Church  revenues,  and  the 
aim  of  the  reformers  was  to  abate  the  excessive  drain  of 
revenue  to  Rome,  and  to  keep  more  of  the  wealth  of  the 
Church  for  themselves.  They  had  very  little  regard  to  the 
excessive  and  unavoidable  expense  of  the  Pope  and  the  papal 
Curia ;  and  some  of  the  clamour  in  this  respect  was  as  reason- 
able as  would  have  been  a  demand  for  the  King  to  live  '  of 
his  own '  under  circumstances  in  which  Parliament  willingly 
granted  tenths  and  fifteenths.  It  was  almost  impossible, 
regard  being  had  to  the  monarchical  system  of  the  Papacy,  to 
get  the  matter  regarded  fairly  and  impartially  from  the  side 
of  the  Pope  and  from  the  side  of  the  clergy,  and  the  cardinals 
at  Pisa  were  hardly  likely  to  side  with  the  latter.  Very  little 
attempt  was  made  to  deal  with  any  of  these  abuses,  '  In  fact,' 
says  the  Bishop  of  London,  '  we  are  driven  to  admit  that  the 
council  scarcely  proceeded  with  the  care,  discretion,  or  single- 
ness of  purpose  which  were  necessary  to  enable  it  to  perform 
the  duty  which  it  had  undertaken.  Its  intention  from  the 
beginning  seems  to  have  been  to  over-ride,  not  to  conciliate, 
the  contending  Popes,  In  the  first  session  the  advocate  of  the 
council  was  allowed  to  call  them  by  the  derisive  names  of 
"  Benefictus  "  and  "  Errorius."  The  council  entirely  identified 
itself  with  the  cardinals,  and  accepted  their  procedure  as  its 
own.' 

Jean  Gerson  was  not  present  to  point  out  that  it  was  the 

Church   Universal,  and    not  the   cardinals,  that   the   council 

should  represent,     Pierre  d'Ailly,  save  for  his  deputation  to 

meet  Carlo  Malatesta,  did  not  lift  up  his  voice  in  the  council; 

^  Creighton,  i.  253. 


382     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

he  was  a  mere  spectator  with  no  influence  on  the  proceedings. 
For  part  of  the  time  he  was  sent  away  to  Genoa  on  special 
work,  so  that  his  actual  stay  in  Pisa  at  the  time  of  important 
deliberations  was  of  the  shortest.  The  canon  lawyers  of  the 
University  of  Paris  were  well  and  worthily  represented  by 
Simon  de  Cramaud,  whose  services  were  appreciated  and  fully 
utilised  by  the  cardinals,  and  who  did  his  work  con  amore. 
But  the  Theological  Faculty  of  the  University,  which  repre- 
sented the  new  and  rising  school  of  religious  criticism,  that 
school  which  looked  rather  to  the  living  word  of  the  spirit 
than  to  the  dead  letter  of  the  law,  this  Faculty  was  practically 
unrepresented  at  the  Council  of  Pisa.  '  If  the  council  had 
taken  up  a  position  of  its  own,  which  could  have  been  supported 
by  all  moderate  men,  it  might  have  exerted  such  influence  on 
the  Popes  themselves,  or  their  supporters,  as  to  have  reduced 
them  to  submission.  Moreover,  the  council  did  not  sit  long 
enough,  nor  discuss  matters  with  sufficient  freedom,  to  make 
its  basis  sure.'  ^  Beside  being  uncanonical,  the  council  of  Pisa 
had  not  been  impartial;  it  had  failed  to  exhibit  a  judicial  and 
reasonable  spirit;  its  decisions  therefore  were  not  accepted 
with  that  universal  reverence  and  respect  which  usually 
attached  to  the  findings  of  an  oecumenical  council.  '  We  can- 
not wonder  that  an  assembly  which  dealt  so  hastily  and  so 
precipitately  with  difficult  and  dangerous  questions  should  fail 
to  obtain  a  permanent  solution."' 

While  the  council  had  been  doing  its  utmost  to  ensure 
peace  and  unity,  both  France  and  Germany  were  drifting 
perilously  near  the  verge  of  civil  war.  After  the  assassination 
of  the  Duke  of  Orleans  on  the  23rd  November  1407,  and  the 
scholastic  apology  for  the  crime  by  Jean  Petit  on  the  8th 
March  1408,-  the  Duke  of  Burgundy  in  July  marched  off  to 
Liege  to  the  relief  of  his  brother-in-law  the  Bishop.  The 
coast  was  now  clear  for  his  opponents.  On  the  11th  Septem- 
ber another  assembly  of  the  princes  was  held  in  the  interest  of 
the  widowed  Duchess.  The  Abbe  of  Cerisi  pronounced  a 
harangue  which  was  longer  and  more  eloquent  than  that  of 
Jean  Petit;  the  royal  princes  determined  to  proceed  against 
the  Duke  of  Burgundy  rigorously,  '  according  to  the  terms  of 
^  CieiglUon,  i.  254.  -  Barante,  iii.  107. 


POPE  ALEXANDER  THE  FIFTH     388 

justice' :  it"  lie  did  not  submit,  the  King  was  to  make  war  upon 
him  with  the  greatest  power  possible.^  Unhappily  the  Duke 
returned  from  Liege  more  powerful  than  before :  he  had 
defeated  and  massacred  his  foes  in  thousands;  he  had  by 
his  personal  courage  won  the  name  of  Jean  sans  Peur.  The 
beautiful  but  unfortunate  Valentine  Visconti,  who  had  of  late 
taken  for  her  motto  liioi  nc  vicst  plus,  plus  tic  rncst  ricn, 
died  just  before  her  husband''s  assassin  re-entered  Paris  on  the 
28th  November.  The  common  people  received  John  of  Bur- 
gundy gladly  ;  the  King,  the  Queen,  and  the  princes  left  Paris 
hurriedly.  A  hollow  peace  was  patched  up  between  the  two 
parties  at  Chartres  on  the  9th  March  1409.  The  King  and 
Queen  returned  to  Paris,  but  the  sons  of  the  late  Duke  of 
Orleans — the  eldest  was  but  eighteen  years  of  age — remained 
absent  from  court.  The  young  Duke  of  Orleans  won  over  to 
his  cause  the  Dukes  of  Berri,  Bourbon,  and  Brittany.  Being 
already  a  widower,  he  married  the  daughter  of  Count  Bernard 
of  Armagnac ;  he  thus  became  the  head  of  the  sturdy  Gascon 
troops ;  and  the  war  between  the  Burgundians  and  the 
Armagnacs  loomed  in  the  near  distance.  Nothing  but  want  of 
funds  kept  the  opponents  from  flying  at  each  other's  throats. 

The  ambassadors  of  King  Rupert,  who  had  fled  from  Pisa 
like  thieves  in  the  night,  had  previously  and  subsequently 
been  received  by  Pope  Gregory  like  the  sons  of  the  morning. 
He  created  Matthew,  Bishop  of  Worms,  his  Legate,  and 
Matthew  delegated  to  another  ambassador,  Bishop  Ulrich  of 
Verden,  his  powers  in  Magdeburg,  Bremen,  V'erden,  and 
Minden ;  and  Rupert  ordered  obedience  to  be  rendered  ac- 
cordingly. But  the  greater  part  of  Germany  had  escaped 
from  the  obedience  of  Pope  Gregory,  and  had  embraced  that 
of  the  cardinals'  Pope,  Alexander  the  Fifth.  The  Austrian 
Dukes  and  the  University  of  Vienna,  all  the  east  and  south 
and  much  of  the  west  of  the  Empire,  were  against  the  King. 
The  star  of  Wenzel  and  the  French  alliance  was  in  the  as- 
cendant. King  Rupert's  cousin,  Ludwig  of  Bavaria-Ingol- 
stadt,  brother  of  the  Queen  of  France,  had  married  for  his 
first  wife  the  daughter  of  the  Duke  of  Bourbon.  He  now 
took  for  his  second  Princess  Catharine  of  Navarre,  and  the 
'  Lavisse,  iv.  i.  335. 


384     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

King  of  France,  the  Dukes  of  Berri  and  Burgundy  were  at 
the  wedding.^  King  Rupert's  arch-enemy,  John  of  Nassau, 
Archbishop  of  Mainz,  now  figured  as  legatus  nakis  of  the  new 
Pope,  and  was  a  vassal  of  the  King  of  France.  The  imminence 
of  civil  war  in  France  itself  alone  secured  its  neutrality  at  this 
time  in  Germany.  Before  the  new  Pope  was  elected,  Rupert 
addressed  a  letter  to  the  German  princes,  describing  the 
reception  of  his  embassy.  He  attributed  their  want  of  success 
not  to  the  disposition  of  Gregory's  old  cardinals,  but  to  the 
disaffection  of  the  others  and  the  opposition  of  the  Florentines  ; 
Baldassare  Cossa  by  his  intrigues  led  the  council  whither  he 
would.  Had  Rupert  himself  been  willing  to  assent,  the 
cardinals  would  have  made  him  the  mightiest  Kaiser  in  the  land ; 
his  ambassadors  had  answered  that  they  were  not  sent  to  seek 
any  temporal  glory  for  their  own  King,  but  for  the  love  of 
God  and  the  eternal  welfare  of  Holy  Church.  But  Germany 
had  pronounced  against  her  King.  The  Elector  Archbishops 
of  Mainz,  Cologne,  and  Trier,  the  Archbishop  of  Magdeburg, 
the  Markgraf  of  Meissen,  had  sent  their  ambassadors  to  Pisa ; 
so  too  had  Bavaria,  Lorraine,  Austria,  Burgundy,  Bi'abant, 
and  the  Wittelsbachs  of  Holland.  King  Rupert  had  to  drain 
the  cup  of  ill-fortune  to  the  dregs.^ 

Not  only  was  the  King  losing  ground  both  in  matters  of 
Church  and  of  State,  not  only  was  he  abandoned  by  the  princes 
even  of  his  own  family,  but  the  cities  of  the  Empire,  the  towns 
which  had  in  1408  made  a  special  league  with  him,  renounced 
their  liability  and  their  allegiance.  His  most  trusted  and 
trustworthy  friend,  Friedrich,  Burggraf  of  Nuernberg,  entered 
the  service  of  King  Sigismund  of  Hungary,  the  half-brother 
of  Rupert's  rival.  His  most  talented  ecclesiastic,  Matthew  of 
Cracow,  Bishop  of  Worms,  died  on  the  5th  March  1410. 
Death  had  also  by  that  time  deprived  him  of  five  of  the  ten 
children  which  his  wife  had  borne  him,  the  last  to  die  being 
his  youngest  and  best-beloved  daughter,  the  beautiful  Elsa, 
whose  marriage  to  Frederic  of  Austria  secured  him  the  Habs- 
burg  alliance.  The  old  feud  with  John  of  Nassau  broke  out 
afresh  ;  it  was  a  feud  to  the  death  now  that  the  spiritual 
allegiance  was  divided.  Rupert  went  to  Marburg  at  the 
1  Huebner,  tab.  133  ;  Hoefler,  445.  -  Hoefler,  446-48. 


POPE  ALEXANDER  THE  FIFTH     385 

beginnini;  of  March,  and  made  a  league  with  Hermann  of  Hesse, 
Otto  and  Eric  of  Brunswick,  and  others,  against  the  Arch- 
bishop-Elector, and  then  returned  to  Heidelberg  to  await  the 
war  which  must  soon  break  out.  Two  months  later  the  un- 
expected happened,  and  war  was  averted. 

King  Sigismund  of  Hungary  and  the  Venetian  republic 
had  been  no  less  earnest  than  King  Rupert  in  desiring  a 
reconciliation  between  Gregory  and  the  cardinals  ;  but  unlike 
King  Rupert  they  deserted  the  aged  Pope  when  they  saw  that 
his  cause  was  lost.  Angelo  Corrario  looked  for  the  support  of 
the  Republic,  and  sought  for  an  asylum  in  his  native  city ; 
but  he  had  refused  to  support  the  candidature  of  the  Doge's 
nephew  for  the  bishopric,  and  he  had  now  to  pay  the  penalty. 
Ambassadors  from  England,  France,  and  Burgundy  implored 
the  Republic  to  support  the  conciliar  Pope  and  to  assist  in 
closing  the  Schism.  There  was  a  hot  debate  in  the  Senate. 
The  Doge  wished  to  recognise  Alexander,  and  his  motion  was 
carried  by  seventy-nine  votes  against  forty-eight.  Venice 
accepted  the  Pope  elected  by  the  Council  of  Pisa. 

This  act  was  a  distinct  declaration  of  ecclesiastical  policy, 
doubtless  the  right  policy  for  the  Republic.  As  a  temporal 
power  Venice,  along  with  France,  the  Emperor  and  other 
temporal  princes,  was  concerned  to  resist  the  claims  of  the 
Roman  Curia,  and  to  support  the  conciliar  principle  that 
general  councils  are  superior  to  Popes,  from  whom  may  lie 
an  appeal  to  a  future  council.  To  this  fundamental  line  of 
ecclesiastical  policy,  declared  now  for  the  first  time  by  the 
Republic,  Venice  adhered  throughout  all  her  many  disputes 
with  Rome.^ 

Sigismund  of  Hungary  followed  suit.  He  was  the  coming 
man,  but  he  was  not  as  yet  in  a  position  to  dominate  the 
board ;  he  was  obliged  to  wait  upon  circumstances  and  to  play 
an  opportunist  game.  He  had  desired  a  council  at  which  both 
Popes  should  be  present,  and  had  worked  for  this  end  ;  but 
when  once  Alexander  had  been  elected,  the  King's  project  was 
no  longer  feasible,  and  he  reconsidered  his  position.  He  had 
none  of  King  Ruperfs  honourable  loyalty,  through  good 
report  and  through  evil,  to  the  man  whom  he  considered  to 
^  Brown  :    Venice,  a  Historical  Sketch,  269. 


386     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

be  the  rightful  and  canonical  Pope ;  Sigismund  looked  to  his 
own  interest  and  the  interest  of  Hungary.  What  could  he 
gain  by  adherence  to  a  Pope  whom  nearly  all  princes  and 
prelates,  whom  the  Republic  of  Venice  had  forsaken  ?  The 
Repubhc,  moreover,  had  just  sold  Zara  and  other  places  to 
Ladislas  of  Naples,  who  had  claims  on  Hungary,  and  could 
only  have  concluded  the  purchase  with  an  eye  to  making  them 
good ;  so  that  the  Republic  now  was  to  be  reckoned  among 
the  enemies  of  Sigismund  ;  and  since  Gregory  was  already  on 
the  side  of  Ladislas,  it  behoved  Sigismund  not  to  allow  the 
Republic  of  Venice  to  monopolise  the  favour  of  Alexander. 
Pope  Gregory,  moreover,  with  his  wofully  shrunken  obedience, 
could  be  of  no  use  to  a  warlike  king  in  his  projects  against 
the  Turks,  the  enemies  of  Christendom ;  no  one  would  listen 
to  a  crusade  preached  by  Gregory.  The  Council  of  Pisa  had 
on  its  side  done  its  best  to  revive  the  honour  of  the  house  of 
Luxemburg  by  its  acknowledgment  of  Wenzel  in  opposition 
to  Rupert ;  and  if  Sigismund  desired  at  some  future  time  to 
succeed  his  half-brother,  it  clearly  behoved  him  to  recognise 
the  Pope  who  had  acknowledged  Wenzel  as  tlie  rightful  King 
of  Germany.  Such  were  probably  the  reasons  which  deter- 
mined King  Sigismund  of  Hungary  to  acknowledge  the  Pope 
who  derived  his  authority  from  the  Council  of  Pisa.^ 

Although  Alexander  the  Fifth  was  not  a  Frenchman,  still 
his  election  was  a  triumph  for  the  French  party  in  the  Council 
of  Pisa,  for  it  was  the  victory  of  Baldassare  Cossa,  Papal 
Legate  of  Bologna,  and  of  the  French  alliance.  There  was 
now  some  chance  that  the  claims  of  Louis  of  Anjou  would  be 
pressed  against  Ladislas  of  Naples,  the  enemy  alike  of  the 
Cardinal  and  of  the  Duke.  Louis  himself  arrived  at  Pisa  in 
July  1409,  and  his  arrival  was  the  cause  of  the  delay  which 
had  occurred  in  holding  the  twenty-second  session  of  the 
council.  When  his  father  died  at  Bari  on  the  night  of  the 
20-21st  September  1384,  Louis,  the  second  duke  of  the  second 
house  of  Anjou,  was  a  boy  of  seven,  in  the  care  of  his  mother, 
Marie  de  Bretagne  in  France.  His  father  in  his  will  desired 
that  the  child  might  be  sent  as  soon  as  possible  to  Italy  to 
comfort  and  console  the  inhabitants  of  his  kingdom  ;  ^  the 
1  Goeller.  62-3.  -  Valois,  ii.  83. 


POPE  ALEXANDER  THE  FIFTH     387 

loyal  barons  and  the  captains  of  the  armv  swore  allegiance, 
and  the  soldiers  shouted  '  Long  live  King  l.ouis  the  Second  ; 
Death  to  the  traitor  Charles/  On  the  2nd  August  of  that 
year  he  was  married  by  proxy  to  Lucie,  daughter  of  Bcrnnbo 
Visconti,  who  was  then  reigning  at  Milan.  On  the  l)tl> 
February  1385  he  entered  Paris,  was  met  by  two  cardinals, 
two  archbishops,  and  the  royal  dukes  of  Berri,  Burgundy,  and 
Bourbon.  The  Neapolitan  nobles  and  Marie  dc  Brctagne 
solicited  aid  from  the  French  King  for  the  invasion  of  Naples. 
On  Pentecost  Day,  2Lst  May  1385,  the  boy  knelt  before  Pope 
Clement  the  Seventh  at  Avignon  and  did  him  homage,  and 
the  Pope  placed  in  his  hands  two  banners  with  the  arms  of  the 
Church  and  of  Naples,  thus  investing  him  with  the  Kingdom  of 
Sicily.  No  pecuniary  helpfrom  France  was, however,  forthcoming 
until  the  year  1390. 

On  the  20th  July  of  that  year  the  young  duke  set 
sail  for  his  kingdom,  and  he  reached  Naples  three  weeks 
later.  He  was  received  with  acclamation  ;  the  banner 
of  Clement  the  Seventh  waved  in  the  streets  of  Naples,  and 
the  young  King  was  preceded  by  the  Papal  Legate.  But  few, 
however,  of  the  barons  came  in  to  tender  their  allegiance,  and 
a  long  and  dreary  contest  between  the  two  pretenders  to  the 
crown  began. ^  The  Castle  of  Saint  Elmo  was  taken  on  the 
18th  October  1390;  the  Castle  Nuovo  surrendered  cm  the  7th 
March  1391  ;  Otto  of  Brunswick  and  Alberigo  da  Barbiano 
were  caj)tured  on  the  24th  April  1392 ;  Amalfi  was  taken  in 
June  1392  and  Ravello  in  February  1393  ;  and  in  September  of 
the  same  year  a  number  of  the  Calabrian  barons  submitted. 
Then  followed  some  years  of  desultory  warfare,  until  the  tide 
of  fortune  turned  in  favour  of  King  Ladislas.     At  the  end  of 

1398  certain  of  the  barons  returned  to  his  allegiance;  and  in 

1399  he  captured  Tarento  and  Naples  from  his  rival,  who 
returned  disconsolate  to  France.-  From  that  year  the  Duke 
had  remained  in  France,  nourishing  in  his  breast  the  claims 
which  he  was  unable  to  prosecute  by  force  of  arms.  Lucie 
Visconti  being  dead,  he  married  Yolande  of  Aragon  on  the 
1st  December  1400.  This  was  in  the  time  of  the  first  sub- 
traction of  obedience  from  Pope  Benedict  the  Thirteenth,  and 

1  Tartini,  ii.  226  ;  Valois,  ii.  168.  "  Tarlini,  ii.  401-4. 


388     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

Marie  de  Bretagne  had  withdrawn  the  domains  in  Provence 
from  their  spiritual  allegiance.  The  Duke,  however,  joined 
the  party  of  his  cousin  of  Orleans ;  he  dined  and  slept  at  the 
Pope's  palace  at  Avignon  on  the  27th  August  1402,  was  once 
again  invested  by  His  HoHness  with  the  Kingdom  of  Sicily, 
and  restored  his  obedience  to  Pope  Benedict  in  return  for  a 
money  payment  of  sums  due  to  him  from  the  Holy  See.  In 
1405  the  Duke  of  Anjou  had  accompanied  the  Pope  to  Genoa, 
a  voyage  which  occasioned  some  trepidation  to  King  Ladislas, 
who  believed  then,  and  later  when  Pope  Benedict  was  at  Porto 
Venere,  that  a  coup  de  main  was  to  be  attempted  on  Rome 
in  the  interest  of  the  French  Pope  and  the  French  Duke. 
Quarrels  at  court  recalled  the  Duke  to  Paris,  and  Ladislas  was 
saved  any  invasion  in  1405.  From  that  time  Louis  of  Anjou  was 
unable  to  do  anything  in  furtherance  of  his  claim  on  the  crown 
of  Naples,  until  the  league  of  Florence,  Siena,  and  the  Cardinal 
Legate  of  Bologna  opened  to  him  more  alluring  prospects. 

On  the  26th  June  1409,  the  day  on  which  the  cardinals 
raised  to  the  pontifical  throne  the  only  member  of  the 
Urbanist  college  who  had  not  engaged  to  support  Ladislas,^ 
the  league  between  the  contracting  parties  was  made  at 
Pisa.  Louis  of  Anjou  engaged  to  furnish  during  the  month 
of  July  a  thousand  lances,  five  hundred  to  come  from  France 
and  five  hundred  to  be  engaged  at  his  expense ;  and  on  the 
day  when  he  started  for  the  war  with  Naples,  the  two  republics 
and  the  Cardinal  Legate  were  to  grant  him  the  like  aid  on 
their  part.  On  the  25th  July  the  Duke  arrived  at  Pisa,  was 
met  and  welcomed  by  the  ambassadors  from  Florence  and 
by  the  cardinals,  was  received  in  public  consistory,  and 
assisted  at  a  session  of  the  council.  After  having  given  his 
allegiance  to  Alexander  the  Fifth,  the  new  Pope  appointed 
the  Duke  to  be  Gonfalonier  of  Holy  Church,  and  on  the 
19th  August  1409  invested  him  with  the  Kingdom  of  Sicily 
as  Clement  the  Seventh  had  done  in  1385,  and  Benedict  the 
Thirteenth  in  1402.  Louis,  Duke  of  Anjou,  had  been 
sufficiently  invested,  but  had  still  his  kingdom  to  win  from 
its  actual  occupant,  and  meanwhile  the  Florentines  were 
beginning  to  doubt  whether  they  had  done  wisely  in  having 
1  Valois,  iv.  119. 


POPE  ALEXANDER  THE  FIFTH     :i89 

invited  him  to  Italy.  They  had  entered  into  the  league 
because  of  the  negotiations  of  Ladislas  with  the  Pisan  exiles, 
because  of  his  wasting  of  Arczzo,  because  of  the  trcacherv  at 
Cortona;  but  now  that  Buklassare  Cossa  had  driven  their 
enemy  to  a  distance  and  had  dispelled  their  fears,  they  began 
to  fear  lest  they  iiad  introduced  a  compromising  and 
dangerous  pretender  into  their  midst.  Their  allies,  however, 
determined  to  drive  the  King  of  Naples  out  of  the  states  of 
the  Church.^ 

It  was  ten  years  since  Louis,  Duke  of  Anjou,  had  been 
driven  from  Italy  by  Ladislas  of  Naples ;  he  was  now  thirty- 
two  years  of  age,  but  he  had  learned  little  by  misfortune.  He 
was  neither  the  man  to  command  an  army  in  the  field,  nor 
the  man  to  take  the  lead  in  a  great  expedition.  On  the 
present  occasion  he  had  left  part  of  his  fleet  behind  him,  and 
he  reaped  the  fruit  of  his  folly.  His  ships,  when  he  reached 
Savona,  found  the  place  in  revolution,  and  forthwith  attacked 
the  Genoese.  At  Genoa  the  aspect  of  affairs  at  this  time 
changed  completely,  much  to  the  joy  of  Ladislas,  much  to 
the  chagrin  of  the  Duke  of  Anjou.  The  two  sons  of  Gian 
Galeazzo  of  Milan  had  complained  to  the  King  of  France  of 
the  depredations  of  Facino  Cane,  who  was  gradually  usurping 
the  whole  of  their  possessions  :  they  asked  the  King  to  take 
them  under  his  protection  and  sovereignty.  Delighted  at 
the  prospect  of  extending  French  influence  in  Italy,  the  King 
commissioned  the  Marshal  Boucicaut  to  take  the  necessary 
steps.  The  Marshal  borrowed  money,  raised  an  army,  left 
Messire  de  Choleton  -  in  command  of  Genoa,  marched  ofl',  took 
Tortona,  crossed  the  Po,  and  met  the  Count  of  Pavia,  who  in- 
troduced him  into  that  city  in  the  midst  of  a  brilliant  cortege. 
Thence  he  moved  on  to  Milan,  which  the  Duke  in  like  manner 
surrendered  to  Boucicaut  for  the  King  of  France.  The  Marshal 
was  girt  with  a  splendid  sword,  received  the  golden  sceptre, 
and  seated  himself  on  the  royal  throne.  French  troops  were 
to  take  possession  of  the  castles  of  Milan,  and  war  was  to 
be  declared  on  Facino  Cane.  '  O  the  blindness  of  men's 
hearts,  knowing  not  the  future,'  exclaims  the  pious  monk  ; 
he    was   ignorant    that    through    the    devices    of   that    same 

^  Tartini,  ii.  607;  Valois,  iv.  121.         -  Monstrelet,  159;  A'eli^truxy  iv.  260. 


390     m  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

Facino  Cane,  the  Marquess  of  Montferrat  was  at  that  moment 
master  of  Genoa.  No  sooner  had  the  Marshal  left  Genoa 
than  the  Marquess  had  agreed  secretly  with  the  Doria  and 
Spinola  families  to  raise  the  place  against  him.  They  in- 
troduced troops  into  the  neighbouring  villages  and  held 
revolutionary  meetings  in  the  city.  Choleton  was  assassinated 
on  the  2nd  September  ;  of  the  French  some  were  massacred, 
others  fled  to  the  citadel;  the  Marquess  of  Montferrat  was 
welcomed  with  acclamation  and  conducted  to  the  palace. 
Under  him  twelve  councillors  were  appointed,  after  the  ancient 
fashion,  to  govern  the  republic.  Boucicaut  hastened  back 
to  Genoa,  but  found  the  city  in  the  hands  of  his  enemies ; 
he  could  do  nothing.  The  French  in  the  citadel  surrendered, 
and  were  allowed  to  rejoin  the  Marshal,  a  shirt  on  their  backs 
and  a  stick  in  their  hands  ('  sola  tunica  amicti  et  virgajn  manu 
tenentes'').  Genoa  was  thenceforward  lost  to  France,  although 
the  Genoese  refused  to  admit  Facino  Cane ;  they  excused  their 
action  to  the  King  of  France  on  the  ground  of  the  excessive 
cruelties  and  exactions  of  the  Marshal,  who  was  the  worst 
tyrant  in  Christendom.^  Genoa  was  now  mistress  of  the 
Riviera;  the  city  had  no  mind  to  help  Louis  of  Anjou.  In 
spite  of  the  letters  of  Pope  Alexander,  who  sent  the  Cardinal 
of  Saluces  to  them,  the  Genoese  leagued  themselves  with 
Ladislas  of  Naples,  and  committed  reprisals  on  the  Florentines 
as  the  allies  of  his  rival.- 

On  the  7th  September  1409  the  Duke  of  Anjou  marched 
out  of  Pisa  with  five  hundred  lances  under  the  command  of 
Tanguy  du  Chatel,  a  Breton  leader  with  a  boyish  face.  The 
Duke  went  to  Siena  to  await  Baldassare  Cossa,  who  was  again 
to  be  engaged  in  an  occupation  thoroughly  congenial  to  him. 
The  Legate  had  come  from  Florence,  where  he  had  for  the 
time  overcome  the  scruples  of  the  Ten,  and  had  arranged 
that  the  Florentine  troops  should  meet  their  allies  at  Chiusi. 
There  were  two  thousand  lances  and  five  hundred  foot. 
Malatesta  de'  Malatesti,  the  Lord  of  Pesaro  and  Fossom- 
brone,  and  cousin  of  Carlo  Malatesta,  was  in  supreme  com- 
mand;  ^    and    under    him    were    two    excellent    condottiere 

1  Monstrelet,  159;  Religietix,  iv.  254-66.  '^  Valois,  iv.  131. 

*  Biog.  Univ.  xxvi.  328. 


POPE  AT.EXANDER  THE  FIFTH     391 

officers,    Sforza    Attendolo  and   Braccio  da   Montonc.      The 
Florentines    had   taken  the  precaution   to   send  two   citizens 
with    their   general,^   who   fortunately  did   not   hamper    him 
excessively.      Kin<;  Ladislas  had  left  Paolo  Orsini  behind  him 
in  command    of   his  troops   in  Tuscany  ;    and    Paolo    (Jrsini, 
viorc  ana,  played  the  traitor   and  entered   the  service  of  the 
new  Pope ;  so  that  it  seemed  as  if  the  boast  of  the  Florentines 
that  they  would  conquer  Ladislas   with   his   own  troops  were 
about  to  be  realised.     No  one  knew  better  than  the  King  that 
many  of  the  condottiere  generals  were  ready  to  desert  to  the 
employer  with  the  longest  purse.     Having  thus  annexed  their 
enemy's  general,  there  was  nothing  to  oppose  the  allies;  they 
enjoved  a  triumphal   march   through  Tuscany   and   Umbria; 
Orvieto   and   Montefiascone  submitted   to  them  ;    at  Viterbo 
the   citizens  deposed   Pope  Gregory's  nephew,   who  was    the 
Vicar,  and  made  over  the  city  to  the  Legate  amid  shouts  of 
'  Long    live  Alexander  the    Fifth,  death  to  Pope  Gregory.' 
With  the  single  exception  of  Todi,  the  whole  country  passed 
under  the  sway  of  the  new  pontiff,  whose  troops  were  on  their 
march  to  Rome.'- 

Their  arrival  was  expected.  Although  the  Castle  of  Sant 
Angelo  was  held  against  the  Neapolitans  by  Vituccio  Vitel- 
leschi,  who  was  at  first  neutral  but  soon  declared  himself  a 
partisan  of  Pope  Alexander,  several  new  gates  were  made 
with  proper  defences  during  the  month  of  September.  The 
allied  forces  reached  Rome  on  the  1st  October.  They  pene- 
trated into  the  Borgo,  and  reached  the  Portico  of  Saint  Peter. 
The  Porta  Viridaria,  the  principal  gate  of  the  Leonine  city, 
through  which  Emperors  customarily  entered,  had  been  walled 
up  on  the  19th  August  by  the  order  of  the  Senator  of  Rome, 
but  had  been  reopened  on  the  25th  September  to  admit  the 
Count  of  Troja,  Giovanni  Colonna  and  others  of  the  Neapolitan 
generals  fleeing  before  the  allies.  On  Tuesday  the  3rd 
October  at  the  hour  of  tierce,  Louis,  Duke  of  Anjou,  accom- 
panied by  Paolo  Orsini  and  four  other  Orsini  generals,  made 
his  triumphal  entry  into  Rome.  Cardinal  Baldassare  Cossa 
took  possession  of  the  Vatican.  The  banners  of  Pope 
Alexander  tiie  Fifth,  of  Holy  Church,  and  of  Duke  Louis  of 
1  Ammirato,  v.  7.  ^  Tartini,  ii.  613. 


392     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

Anjou  floated  over  the  Leonine  city ;  and  the  Duke's  chaplain 
celebrated  Mass  at  the  high  altar  of  Saint  Peter"'s  Church.^  It 
was  seven  years  since  Baldassare  Cossa  had  last  been  in  Rome, 
the  private  chamberlain  of  Pope  Boniface  the  Ninth,  who  had 
promoted  him  to  be  Cardinal-Deacon  of  Saint  Eustachius,  and 
had  then  made  him  Papal  Legate  of  Bologna.  Six  years  of 
strong  and  successful  rule  over  that  stormy  city  had  trans- 
formed him  into  the  foremost  cardinal  of  the  Urbanist 
obedience.  He  had  originated  and  engineered  the  Council  of 
Pisa ;  he  had  got  a  firm  friend  elected  as  Pope,  and  was 
himself  the  man  behind  the  throne ;  he  had  entered  the 
Eternal  City  in  triumph,  and  now  held  the  papal  palace  and 
the  papal  fortress  for  Alexander  the  Fifth. 

The  whole  of  Rome  was,  however,  not  yet  conquered :  the 
Count  of  Troja  and  the  Colonnas  still  held  the  city  across 
the  Tiber  for  King  Ladislas.  Although  the  allies  held  the 
Castle,  they  could  not  wrench  the  strongly  fortified  bridge  of 
Sant  Angelo  nor  the  Trastevere  from  the  enemy.  On  the 
10th  October  the  allies  abandoned  the  Borgo,  crossed  the 
Tiber  by  the  Monte  Rotondo  two  miles  north  of  the  city, 
and  attempted  to  take  Rome  from  the  east ;  but  it  was  in 
vain.  They  had  made  no  provision  for  an  assault.-  The 
only  alternative  was  to  besiege  the  city ;  and  seeing  that  this 
involved  a  considerable  delay,  the  Duke  and  the  Cardinal  did 
not  deem  their  presence  any  longer  to  be  necessary.^  On  the 
10th  October  the  Duke  of  Anjou  and  Cardinal  Baldassare 
Cossa  left  the  army  under  the  command  of  the  Florentine 
general,  Malatesta  de"*  Malatesti,  Signor  of  Pesaro,  and  hurried 
back  to  join  the  Pope.  The  French  troops  remained  under 
the  generals  Tanguy  de  Chatel  and  the  Count  of  Tagliacozzo. 
Malatesta  was  assisted  by  Paolo  Orsini,  by  Sforza  Attendolo, 
by  Braccio  da  Montone ;  against  them  were  ranged  the 
Neapolitans  under  the  Count  of  Troja,  under  whom  were 
Giovanni  and  Nicolo  Colonna  and  Baptista  Savelli.  Skirmishes 
between  the  rival  armies  occurred  all  through  the  months  of 
October,  November,  and  December. 

The  last  session  of  the  Council  of  Pisa  had  been  held  on 
the  7th  August.  Pestilence  then  appeared  in  the  city,  and 
'  Mur.  xxiv.  1003.  '^  Raumer,  221. 


POPE  ALEXANDER  THE  FIFTH     393 

the  Pope  and  cardinals,  fearing  for  their  lives,  withdrew  Inter 
in  the  month  to  Prato,  the  little  Florentine  town  on  the 
Bisenzio,  where  the  Virnjin's  Girdle  is  preserved  and  exhibited, 
and  where  the  Cardinal  and  the  Duke,  on  his  way  back  to 
France  to  raise  additional  funds,  found  them  on  the  1st 
November. 

The  Pope,  before  leaving  Pisa,  while  his  strong  friend, 
thirty  years  his  junior,  was  still  at  his  side,  had  shown 
a  certain  disposition  toward  meeting  the  demand  for  the 
internal  reform  of  the  papal  government.  Alexander  was 
willing  to  give  up  much  :  he  abandoned  all  claims  to  arrears 
of  revenue  due  to  the  Apostolic  See,  and  all  the  spoils  and 
revenues  of  vacant  benefices;  he  promised  not  to  transfer 
bishops  without  their  consent,  save  for  special  and  weighty 
reasons;  he  restored,  pending  the  meeting  of  a  new  council 
in  three  years'  time,  the  right  of  election  to  cathedral  churches 
and  to  the  larger  monasteries ;  he  recognised  to  a  certain 
extent  the  right  of  the  ordinary  to  appoint  to  benefices  in  his 
own  nomination ;  but  further  than  this  he  was  not  prepared 
to  go.  He  expressly  reserved  for  himself  and  the  cardinals 
the  rights  to  first-fruits  and  services,  which  had  become  a 
regular  and  necessary  source  of  revenue  to  the  Holy  See.  At 
the  same  time,  although  he  renounced  his  claim  to  apostolic 
taxes  due  and  unpaid,  he  sent  an  officer  to  France  to  collect 
all  arrears  possible ;  and  at  the  same  time  he  deputed  Cardinal 
de  Thury  to  propose  to  the  French  court  and  the  Univei-sity 
of  Paris  the  imposition  of  a  new  tax  of  two-tenths  on  the 
clergy  of  the  kingdom.  The  Pope  and  the  cardinals  had 
themselves  to  think  of  as  well  as  the  realm  of  France. 

Moreover,  Pope  Alexander  the  Fifth,  in  the  absence  of 
Baldassare  Cossa,  and  without  consulting  any  of  the  other 
cardinals,  unhappily  promulgated  a  Bull  of  very  serious  and 
far-reaching  consequences.  This  was  the  Bull,  Regjians  in 
JExcelsis,  in  favour  of  the  Mendicant  Friars,  dated  the  4th  (or 
the  12th)  October  1409.  Petrus  Filargi  had  been  educated  by 
the  Franciscans  and  had  entered  their  order ;  all  his  best  feel- 
ings were  bound  up  with  them,  and  their  interests  were  dearest 
to  his  heart.  Unhappily  the  last  two  hundred  years,  as  has 
already  been  pointed  out,  had  witnessed  a  sad  deterioration 


394     m  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

among  the  mendicant  orders.     From  a  blessing  they  had  too 
frequently  become  a   curse  to  the  communities  among  which 
they  dwelt;    the   friction  and   strife  between  them   and  the 
secular   clergy   had    invaded   the   Universities    of  Paris   and 
Oxford  ;  the  parish  priest  everywhere  with  reason  complained 
that  the  friar  with  his  portable  altar  deprived  him  of  the 
tribute  and  the   alms  of  the  faithful.     In  1215,  before  any 
order  of  mendicant   friars  had  been  constituted,  the  Fourth 
Council  of  Lateran  had  issued  its  famous  Bull,  Oninis  utrnisque 
sexus,  requiring  every  person   to  confess  at  least  once  in  the 
year  to  his  or  her  own  parish  priest,  or  to  another  confessor 
by  the  express  permission  of  that  priest.     This  was  the  year 
before  the  Order  of  the  Dominicans  was  instituted.     In  1227 
Pope    Gregory   the    Ninth,    without    mentioning    the    Bull 
of    the   Lateran    Council,   authorised    the    Preaching   Friars 
to  hear  confessions  in   places   where    they    preached.      This 
caused  some  apprehension,  especially  in  England,^  among  the 
secular  clergy,  whose  privileges  and   revenues  were  thus  in- 
vaded.    But    Innocent    the    Fourth    in    1244    supported    the 
Dominicans  against  the  bishops.     In   1253  the  Friars  were 
expelled  from   the   University  of   Paris   for  disobedience    to 
its  statutes  ;  ^  and  in  the  year  following  Pope  Innocent,  shortly 
before    his   death,  published   a   second  Bull,  disavowing  his 
former,   prohibiting  them  from  hearing  confessions  without 
the  permission  of  the  parish  priest.     This  Bull  in  its  turn  was 
revoked  by  Innocent's  successor,  Alexander  the  Fourth,  who 
allowed  the  Friars  to  preach  and  to  hear  confessions,  provided 
they  had  the  permission  of  the  Pope  or  of  a  Papal  Legate  or 
of  the  ordinary  of  the  place.     He  also   revoked   the  decree 
of  the  University  expelling  the  Friars.     Clement  the  Fourth 
in  1265  placed  some  limitations  on  the  Bull  of  Alexander,  and 
in   1280   Pope   Martin   the  Fourth  attempted   to  settle  the 
matter,  and   at  the  same  time  to  save  the  authority  of  the 
Lateran  Council,  by  giving  to  the  Friars  full  liberty  to  hear 
confessions  provided  the  penitent  also  confessed  once  a  year 
to  his  own  parish  priest.     The  strife  between  the  seculars  and 
regulars,  however,  increased  in  virulence  as  the  years  went  on, 
and  the  mendicant  orders  grew  stronger  and  stronger.     The 

1  Matthew  Paris,  iii.  149.  ^  Rashdall,  i.  378. 


POPE  ALEXANDER  THE  FIFTH     895 

Popes  naturally  favoured  them,  for  the  mendicants  were 
subject  to  them  alone  under  their  own  generals,  and  were  the 
most  powerful  and  popular  agents  of  the  papacy  throughout 
Europe  ;  but  the  bishops  and  secular  clergy  fought  hard  for 
the  loaves  and  fishes  of  which  the  friars  despoiled  them.  By 
the  time  of  Pope  lioniface  the  Eighth  the  friars  had  worked 
serious  havoc  with  the  influence  of  the  secular  clergy;  this 
Pope  surrounded  them  with  his  special  protection,  raised 
them  to  high  dignities  in  the  church,  and  even  made  several 
of  them  cardinals ;  ^  he  promulgated  in  favour  of  the  Domini- 
cans and  Franciscans — and  it  was  subsequently  extended  to 
the  Austin  friars  and  the  Carmelites — the  Hull  known  as 
Super  Cathcdram.  This  allowed  them  to  preach,  to  hear  con- 
fessions, to  award  penance  and  grant  absolution,  and  to  bury  the 
dead  in  the  provinces  in  which  they  were  established,  provided 
their  superiors  had  obtained  the  permission  of  the  bishops. 
Even  this  limitation  did  not  approve  itself  to  his  successor, 
who  gave  the  Dominicans  full  and  unlimited  power  to  hear 
confessions ;  but  the  Bull  of  Boniface  was  re-established  by 
the  Council  of  Vienne  under  Clement  the  Fifth  in  1311,  and 
remained  thenceforward  in  force.  The  friars  selected  by  their 
superiors  as  fit  and  proper  persons  to  hear  confession  were  by 
them  presented,  under  this  Bull,  to  the  bishops  for  permission 
'  in  order  that  with  their  permission  and  under  their  good 
pleasure  the  friars  designated  might,  in  the  towns  and  dioceses 
of  the  aforesaid  prelates,  hear  the  confessions  of  those  who 
wished  to  confess  to  them,  impose  salutary  penance,  and  grant 
them  the  benefit  of  absolution.''  It  naturally  followed  that 
those  who  confessed  to  the  friars  were  no  longer  required  to 
confess  to  their  parish  priests,  and  this  view  was  expressly  up- 
held by  Pope  John  the  Twenty-second.  Unfortunately  this 
Pope  was  himself  of  not  unimpeachable  orthodoxy,  and  the 
opinion,  which  had  the  sanction  of  the  Lateran  Council,  that 
every  one  was  obliged  to  confess  to  the  parish  priest  once 
in  the  year,  found  favour  and  was  vigorously  defended.  Not- 
withstanding this,  the  regulars  gained  ground.  In  Germany  in 
King  Rupert's  time,  when  the  King  himself  did  a  good  turn  to 
divers  monasteries,  and  when  there  were  several  reforming 
^  Rocquain,  213. 


396     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

abbots,  the  general  state  of  the  regular  clergy  was  better  than 
that  of  the  secular. 

Now  that  they  had  got  a  Franciscan  Pope,  the  friars 
determined  to  turn  their  opportunity  to  their  own  ad- 
vantage. All  four  orders  complained  to  him  of  the  con- 
tention that  confession  to  a  friar  did  not  exempt  a  man 
from  confession  to  the  parish  priest.  Pope  Alexander  the 
Fifth,  in  the  Bull  Regnans  in  Excelsis,  upheld  in  every  point 
the  constitution  of  his  predecessor  Boniface,  notwithstanding 
the  Bull  of  the  Lateran  Council,  and  any  other  papal  constitu- 
tions to  the  contrary  ('  non  obstante  predicta,  qtiae  incipit  Omnis 
ut7iusque  sexus,  et  aliis  constituciomhus  apostolicis  contrariis 
qiiihuscnnque '')}  This  Bull  is  expressed  to  be  made  with  the 
counsel  and  consent  of  the  cardinals,  but  they  all  declared  that 
they  knew  nothing  whatever  about  it.  The  greatest  excitement 
was  caused  in  the  University  of  Paris,  where  the  well-received 
opinion  was  that  confession  made  to  an  '  admitted  brother,'  as 
the  licensed  friars  were  called,  was  of  doubtful  and  uncertain 
efficacy.  In  order  to  avoid  mortal  sin,  said  the  doctors,  it  was 
necessary  for  a  man  to  confess  to  a  priest  who  had  the  cure  of 
souls.  In  1408  a  Franciscan,  Jean  de  Gorel,  had  publicly  main- 
tained that  friars  were  an  institution  of  the  primitive  Church 
and  therefore  prior  in  their  inception  to  the  parish  priest ;  that 
they  therefore  had  a  superior  right  to  preach,  to  hear  con- 
fessions, to  administer  extreme  unction,  and  to  perform  burials. 
But  the  Theological  Faculty  of  the  University  had  haled  the 
bold  Franciscan  before  themselves,  and  had  obliged  him  to 
recant  and  to  state  publicly  that  these  rights,  and  the  all- 
important  right  to  collect  tithes,  belonged  essentially  to  the 
parish  priest,  and  that  the  mendicant  friar  could  not  have 
them  except  accidentally  and  by  permission  of  the  prelates. 
When  the  friars  produced  the  Bull  of  Alexander,  the  University, 
backed  as  they  were  by  the  cardinals,  at  once  flew  to  arms ; 
they  determined  to  expel  all  the  mendicants  unless  they  re- 
nounced the  Bull.  The  Dominicans  and  the  Carmelites  at 
once  complied.  On  the  1st  March  1410,  at  the  Church  of 
Saint  Martin  in  the  Fields,  one  of  the  '  Dogs  of  the  Lord  ' 
preached  a  sermon  before  the  University,  in  which  he  declared 
^  Eeligieux,  iv.  292-306. 


POPE  ALEXANDER  THE  FIFTH     .397 

that  his  order  had  not  asked  for  the  Bull,  and  that  they  were 
eontent  with  their  former  privileti^cs.  The  Franciseans  held  hy 
the  Franciscan  Pope;  they  refused  to  suhmit;  they  ran  about 
the  streets  with  copies  of  the  Bull  in  their  hands  ;  they  in- 
sulted the  priests;  they  proclaimed  that  they  alone  could  hear 
confessions  and  levy  tithes.  Jean  Gerson  preached  against 
them  on  the  third  Sunday  in  Lent ;  and,  what  was  more 
efficacious,  the  King  sent  a  herald  to  make  a  proclamation  and 
to  affix  a  notice  outside  the  Friary  doors,  forbidding  the 
secular  clergy,  on  pain  of  loss  of  their  temporalities,  to  allow 
any  Franciscan  or  Augustin  to  preach  or  hear  confession  in 
their  churches.^  The  cause  of  quarrel  was  finally  removed 
by  Alexander's  successor.  '  From  his  conduct  in  this  matter,' 
says  Bishop  Creighton,  '  we  may  judge  the  character  of  Alex- 
ander. Owing  everything  to  his  Order,  he  was  ready  to 
befriend  it  in  any  way,  and  at  once  complied  with  the  requests 
which  its  advocates  preferred,  without  any  consideration  of 
their  wisdom  or  expediency.  .  .  .  He  was  generally  under  the 
rule  of  his  cardinals  ;  only  in  granting  this  Bull  to  his  beloved 
Order  did  he  venture  to  act  without  their  advice,  and  then  he 
foolishly  endeavoured  to  act  secretly,  because  he  had  not  the 
courage  to  face  and  overcome  opposition.' - 

Rome  meanwhile  was  suffering  all  the  horrors  of  war :  the 
papal  army  occupied  the  Leonine  City  ;  the  Neapolitans  were 
south  of  the  Tiber.  When  the  Legate  and  the  Duke  went  off 
to  join  the  Pope,  Paolo  Orsini,  who  liked  to  take  military 
matters  deliberately,  marched  his  troops  off  toward  the  Lago 
Bracciano,  leaving  Nicolo  Orsini  in  charge  of  the  Castle  Sant 
Angelo.  The  first  care  of  the  clergy  was  to  preserve  their 
sacred  relics :  images,  bells,  and  reliquaries  were  huiried  from 
one  church  to  another  for  safety ;  the  Veronica  was  finally 
deposited  in  the  Castle.  Bombards  were  hurled  from  Sant 
Angelo  into  the  city,  and  frequent  sallies  were  made ;  what 
with  the  scarcity  and  the  war,  the  citizens  were  at  their  wits' 
end  :  they  dared  not  cross  the  river  to  get  in  their  vintage,  for 
Nicolo  Colonna  attacked  boats  and  crops.  A  mole  was  made 
at  the  Sanctus  Spiritus ;  a  'cat'  was  prepared  for  breaking 
down  the  walls;  certain  gates  of  the  city  were  walled  up, 
'  Schwab,  459-6o  ;  Lenfant,  i.  313- 16.  -'  Creighton,  i.  265. 


398     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

others  were  burned  down.  On  the  22nd  October  some  of  the 
Neapolitan  troops  marched  out  toward  Naples,  but  three 
days  later  the  galleys  of  Ladislas  appeared  before  Ostia,  and 
on  the  28th  the  city  was  in  a  state  of  siege.  It  was  impossible 
to  observe  the  Feast  of  All  Saints.  The  church  bells  rang  not 
at  all,  except  as  a  call  to  arms.  In  November,  Ladislas  sent  as 
usual  to  appoint  the  magistrates  for  the  year,  and  took  the 
opportunity  to  order  a  few  salutary  executions.  At  times  a 
touch  of  comedy  lightened  the  darkness.  A  butcher,  who  had 
sold  a  hundred  pigs,  sent  them  to  the  river  to  be  watered; 
one  of  the  pigs  ran  away ;  the  drovers  and  the  other  pigs 
followed;  and  all  were  captured  by  the  garrison  of  Sant 
Angelo.  Most  of  the  cattle,  however,  were  dying  from  want 
of  fodder.  Toward  the  end  of  the  month  renewed  prepara- 
tions were  made  by  the  Count  of  Troja;  Paolo  Orsini  also 
threw  supplies  into  Sant  Angelo.  The  armies  avoided  any  fixed 
fighting,  but  convoys  were  attacked  and  prisoners  made  on 
one  side  and  on  the  other ;  sallies  were  met  by  counter-sallies  ; 
cries  for  the  Church  and  the  Orsini  were  answered  by  shouts 
for  the  Church  and  the  Colonna.  The  weather  was  stormy 
and  tempestuous.  Great  damage  was  done  to  the  churches  : 
some  of  the  towers  and  turrets  were  pulled  down,  the  principal 
doors  were  taken  off  their  hinges  or  bricked  up,  parts  of  the 
Portico  of  Saint  Peter's  were  ruined. 

As  the  year  drew  to  its  close  the  allies  pressed  closer 
and  closer  round  the  city.  On  Saturday  the  28th  December, 
the  Feast  of  the  Holy  Innocents,  Malatesta  drew  up  his 
whole  army  outside  the  walls;  his  troops  shouted  to 
the  Romans  to  raise  a  cry  for  the  Church  and  the  People ; 
bombs  from  the  Castle  Sant  Angelo  were  hurled  into 
the  city.  Nicolo  Colonna  with  six  hundred  horsemen 
stood  ready  to  meet  them.  There  was  no  fight  that  day; 
at  vespers  the  troops  drew  off.  That  night  Paolo  Orsini 
came  with  his  army  and  encamped  outside  Saint  Peter's  on 
the  Vatican  Hill.  Next  afternoon,  at  the  time  of  vespers, 
the  Count  of  Troja,  with  Nicolo  Colonna  and  Baptista  Savelli, 
marched  out  their  army  through  the  Porta  Septimania,  and  a 
fight  took  place.  The  slaughter  was  not  great,  but  the  con- 
dottiere  general  gained  a  decisive  victory,  took  a  large  number 


POPE  ALEXANDER  THE  FIFTH     39i) 

of  prisoners,  and  others  of  his  enemies  tlirew  themselves  into 
the  river  and  were  drowned.  The  most  important  prisoner  was 
the  Count  of  Troja  himself,  who,  however,  managed  to  escape 
that  same  night,  thereby  depriving  Paolo  Orsini  of  his  hope 
of  a  heavy  ransom.  The  Florentine  general,  Malatesta,  was 
already  in  communication  with  one  Laelius,  a  noble  with  a 
strong  following,  and  with  other  traitors  inside  the  walls. ^ 
The  defeat  of  the  Neapolitan  generals  was  decisive.  On  the 
last  day  of  the  year  the  fickle  Romans,  led  by  some  boys, 
raised  the  cry  '  Viva  lo  Popolo  c  la  Oi'icsaT  and  shortly  after 
midnight  the  victorious  generals  entered  Rome  in  triumpii. 
On  the  5th  January  1410  the  Senator  who  held  the  Ca))itol 
for  King  Ladislas  surrendered  it  to  Paolo  Orsini,  who  on  the 
8th  brought  his  wife,  Donna  Rica,  into  the  city.  The  strong 
towers  by  the  gates  still  held  out  for  King  Ladislas,  but  they 
were  taken  one  by  one ;  Paolo  Orsini  stuck  to  the  work  ;  he 
did  not  cease  it  even  for  the  Games  '  in  Agone '  which  were 
superintended  by  Malatesta.  On  the  16th  January,  after 
three  or  four  days'  bombardment,  the  Porta  San  Lorenzo, 
which  stands  on  the  site  of  the  ancient  Porta  Tiburtina,  on 
the  road  leading  to  Tivoli,  surrendered.  On  the  29th  January 
an  embassy  was  despatched  to  Pope  Alexander  to  announce  the 
good  news  to  him.  Finally,  on  the  15th  February,  the  Porta 
Maggiore,  the  gateway  which  stands  where  the  old  archway  of 
the  Claudian  aqueduct  once  brought  into  Rome  the  water 
which  was  'second  only  in  excellence  to  the  Marcia  itself/^ 
was  taken  by  assault,  and  the  last  sign  of  Neapolitan  rule  was 
thus  effaced  from  Rome.  The  papal  troops  garrisoned  the 
Eternal  City.  Pope  Alexander  was  acknowledged  by  the 
Romans.  King  Ladislas  of  Naples  was  defeated,  but  not  yet 
conquered.^ 

The  Roman  embassy  found  Pope  Alexander  at  Pistoja,  the 
Tuscan  mountain  town  near  the  Ombrone  and  about  eighteen 
miles  from  Prato.  Like  it,  Pistoja  was  subject  to  the  Floren- 
tines. On  the  1st  November  at  Prato,  on  the  clay  when  the 
Duke  and  the  Cardinal  returned  from  Rome,  Alexander  fulmi- 
nated a  Bull  against  King  Ladislas  of  Naples,  who  had — so 
the  Bull  ran — been  nourished   by  the  milk  and  substance  of 

1  Raynaldus,  viii.  300.         -  Hodgkin,  iv.  161.         '  Mur.  xxiv.  1007-1015. 


400     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

the  Roman  Church,  who  had  been  crowned  King  of  Naples 
and  Sicily  by  Pope  Boniface  the  Ninth,  who  had  abused  his 
power  and  had  been  excommunicated  by  Pope  Innocent  the 
Seventh,  who  had  usurped  the  possessions  of  the  Church  and 
forfeited  all  his  engagements  toward  her,  who  had  imprisoned 
the  relations  and  ravaged  the  lands  of  the  Cardinals  Cossa  and 
Antonius,  and  who  finally  had  prohibited  his  subjects  from 
recognising  Pope  Alexander ;  wherefore  by  the  advice  of  his 
cardinals  the  Pope  now  summoned  King  Ladislas  to  appear 
and  to  hear  the  sentence  depriving  him  of  his  kingdom  and 
his  rights.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  Ladislas  of  Naples  took 
no  notice  of  this  hrutum  fulmen. 

At  Pistoja  the  Pope  spent  Christmas  and  the  New  Year,  and 
here  he  received  the  Roman  ambassadors.  He  was  inclined  to 
accede  to  their  request  and  to  go  to  Rome  ;  the  Florentines  also 
persuaded  him  thereto,  in  order  to  confirm  the  Romans  in 
their  obedience  and  to  recover  other  lands  of  the  Church.^ 
But  Cardinal  Baldassare  Cossa  was  opposed  to  the  proposed 
move.  Rome  was  now  safe,  and  the  presence  of  the  Pope  was 
unnecessary.  He  reminded  the  Pope  that  at  the  time  of  his 
election  it  was  agreed  that  they  should  work  for  the  recovery 
of  the  possessions  of  the  Church  in  Tuscany,  and  that  he  him- 
self had  spent  strength  and  money  to  that  end ;  furthermore, 
he  added  that  when  he  left  for  the  Council  of  Pisa,  he  had 
promised  the  Bolognese  that  on  his  return  he  would  bring  the 
Pope  back  with  him,  and  that  he  feared  they  might  kill  him 
if  he  failed  to  keep  his  word.^  There  was  a  touch  of  sardonic 
humour  in  the  suggestion  that  Baldassare  Cossa,  who  had  lived 
through  six  years  of  repeated  attempts  at  assassination,  stood 
really  in  fear  of  the  men  of  Bologna.  The  argument  was 
thrown  out  as  a  sop  to  the  Curia,  and  it  was  believed  by  the 
credulous  and  stolid  Dietrich  von  Niem ;  but  Pope  Alexander 
knew  Bologna  and  Baldassare  Cossa  too  well  to  take  it  seriously. 
Probably  the  cardinal's  real  reason  was  that  he  knew  that  his 
own  presence  was  required  at  Bologna,  and  that  after  the  issue 
of  the  Bull  Regnans  in  Excels'is,  he  dared  not  leave  the  Pope 
alone.  He  promised  to  make  suitable  accommodation  for 
the  Pope  and  his  cardinals ;  and  accordingly,  braving  the  ice 
1  Ghirar,  ii.  580.  -  Hardt,  ii.  355  ei  seq. 


POPE  ALEXANDER  THE  FIFTH     401 

and  snow  and  the  '  wintei-'s  furious  ra<^cs/  the  Pope  and  Curia 
accompanied  Cardinal  lialdussarc  Cossa  back  to  his  beloved 
city  of  Boloo;na. 

Durin<]j  his  absence  on  the  march  to  Rome  and  with  the 
Pope,  the  Legate's  phice  at  Bologna  had  been  filled  by  his 
friend,  Cardinal  Conrad  Caracciolo,  who  like  himself  was 
a  Neapolitan.  The  Pope  was  settled  in  the  Anziani  Palace 
with  his  court  around  him  ;  suitable  lodgings  in  difterent 
palaces  and  houses  were  provided  for  the  cardinals,^  and  all 
were  entertained  by  Cardinal  Cossa.  Undoubtedly  the  move 
was  well  advised.  The  Pope  was  old  and  feeble  ;  it  was  better 
to  keep  him  in  comparative  safety  than  that  he  should  run  the 
risk  of  renewed  hostilities.  Home  was  safe  for  the  time,  but 
King  Ladislas  was  not  yet  subdued.  He  had  lately  taken  for 
his  motto  Aut  Ccvsar  aid  nihil,  meaning  to  try  for  the  over- 
lordship  of  all  Italy  ;  he  might  be  expected  back  from  Naples 
at  the  head  of  a  large  army ;  while  his  opponent,  the  Duke 
of  Anjou,  on  the  other  hand,  had  departed  to  France  for 
reinforcements,  and  had  not  yet  returned.  The  events  of  the 
next  few  years  proved  that  the  Cardinal  had  judged  the  danger 
aright.  That  his  own  presence  was  urgently  required  at 
Bologna  was  proved  by  the  revolt  of  Forlimpopolo. 

While  Pope  Alexander  was  at  Bologna  he  received  news  of 
the  war  between  King  Sigismund  of  Hungary  and  his  allies  the 
Servians  against  the  Turks,"  whereupon  the  Pope  preached  a 
crusade  calling  upon  all  Christian  princes  to  help  the  king- 
dom of  Hungary  in  its  time  of  need.^  About  the  same  time, 
at  the  solicitation  of  the  Archbishop  of  Prague,  the  Pope  pro- 
mulgated a  Bull  against  the  Wyclifite  heresies  in  Bohemia, 
but  without  naming  John  Hus.  The  reformer,  being  Rector  of 
the  University  of  Prague  and  in  favour  at  court,  where  he  was 
the  Queen's  confessor,  went  his  own  way  peacefully,  saying, 
that  he  should  appeal  from  Alexander  ill-informed  to  Alex- 
ander better-informed.  On  the  22nd  January  1410  the  Pope 
renewed  his  condemnation  of  his  two  rivals  and  their  adherents. 
Another  embassy  arrived  from  the  Romans,  bringing  the  Pope 

>  Ghirar,  ii.  580.  '  Aschbach,  i.  233. 

'  Lenfant,  i.  323,  quoting  Bzovius  ;  Aschbach  says  nothing  about  any  crusade  : 
vid.  sup.  p.  307. 

2c 


402     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

the  keys  of  the  city,  and  entreating  him  to  come  speedily  and 
take  possession.  Alexander  was  delighted  with  the  embassy, 
and  appointed  the  Cardinal  of  Saint  Praxedes  to  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  Church  and  the  City  of  Rome,  with  power 
to  absolve  the  citizens  from  the  oath  which  they  had  taken  to 
Pope  Gregory  and  King  Ladislas.  The  Florentines  also 
promised  the  Pope  to  help  the  Duke  of  Anjou. 

Among  the  most  zealous  partisans  of  the  league  against 
King  Ladislas  wasNicolo,  the  Marquess  of  Este.  In  gratitude 
for  his  good  offices  the  Pope  summoned  him  to  Bologna,  and 
on  Laetare  Sunday  presented  him  with  the  Golden  Rose. 
The  ceremony  of  consecration  of  the  Golden  Rose  and  of  its 
presentation  to  the  prince  most  worthy  for  devotion  to  Holy 
Church  had  been  inaugurated  by  Pope  Urban  the  Second  in 
1095  ;  it  designated  Christ,  who  was  '  the  Rose  of  Sharon  ' ; 
the  red  colour  typified  His  blood,  the  '  dyed  garments  from 
Bozrah  ' ;  and  its  colour  of  musk  and  balm  was  the  emblem  of 
His  resurrection.  It  was  consecrated  and  presented  once  a  year, 
on  the  fourth  Sunday  in  Lent.^  On  the  present  occasion,  the 
Pope  after  blessing  and  distributing  candles  to  the  populace 
from  the  loggia  of  his  palace,  went  with  his  cardinals  to  the 
Church  of  San  Petronio,  where  he  celebrated  Mass  after  the 
custom  of  the  pontiffs  in  Rome,  blessed  the  Golden  Rose,  and 
presented  it  to  the  Marquess  with  the  usual  solemn  ceremonies. 
It  was  almost  the  last  act  of  Filargi's  pontificate. 

The  rejoicings,  more  than  there  had  ever  been  before  in 
that  city,  with  which  the  arrival  of  Pope  Alexander  was 
welcomed  at  Bologna,  were  marred  by  the  news  of  the  revolt 
of  the  little  town  of  Forlimpopolo,  which  lies  just  beyond 
Forli  on  the  road  to  Ravenna.  The  Constable  da  Barbiano, 
the  old  enemy  of  Baldassare  Cossa,  was  at  the  bottom  of  the 
plot ;  Giorgio  Ordelasi  was  his  instrument.  Ordelasi  opened 
communications  with  the  men  of  Forli  as  well  as  with  those  of 
Forlimpopolo  ;  he  got  two  hundred  horse  and  two  hundred 
foot  from  the  Lord  of  Urbino ;  the  gates  of  the  castle,  through 
the  negligence  of  the  officer  in  charge,  were  treacherously 
opened  to  him  at  night  by  the  citizens  in  the  plot,  and 
Forlimpopolo  was  taken.  The  rebellion  spread  through  the 
^  Lenfant,  i.  323-5, 


POPE  ALEXANDER  THE  FIFTH     403 

countrv-side  :  troops  were  sent  from  Ii()lo<;iia  ;  Florence  sent 
three  huiulreil  foot  soldiers  to  the  aid  of  the  Podesta  of  Forli. 
Then  one  nif^ht  Giorgio  Ordelasi  tried  to  surprise  Forli ;  he 
got  within  the  walls  by  treachery,  but  was  repulsed  after 
a  sharp  fight  by  the  Podesta  and  the  Florentine  troops.^  On 
the  3rd  March  Forlinipo|)olo  was  straitly  besieged,  and  on 
the  8th  April  the  Papal  Legate  himself  went  there  to  super- 
intend the  operations.  The  town  was  on  the  point  of  surrender 
when,  on  the  28th  April,  Baldassare  Cossa  was  recalled  to 
Bologna  by  the  news  that  his  old  friend.  Pope  Alexander,  was 
seriously  ill.  When  a  Pope  was  ill,  poison  was  always  su.s- 
pected  ;  and  although  the  cardinal  was  then  fifty  miles  from 
Bologna,  there  were  not  wanting  some  who  pretended  that  the 
illness  was  caused  bv  a  poisoned  clyster  which  he  had  sent  to 
be  administered.  This  report  was  not  believed  even  by  the 
cardinal's  inveterate  enemy,  Dietrich  von  Niem,  and  may 
safely  be  ascribed  to  mere  idle  and  empty  malice.  Baldassare 
Cossa  at  once  raised  the  siege  and  hastened  back  to  Bologna. 

The  old  Franciscan, '  who  was  an  excellent  man  in  the  whole 
course  of  his  life,"  ^  was  daily  getting  weaker  and  weaker  ;  it 
was  evident  that  he  lay  a-dying.  He  made  a  good  end. 
When  he  found  that  he  was  getting  worse  rather  than  better, 
he  assembled  the  cardinals  round  his  bed  and  said  to  them  : 
*  Let  not  your  heart  be  troubled  :  I  ascend  to  my  Father  and  to 
your  Father.'  He  asked  them  to  pray  that  he  might  die  with 
a  quiet  and  contrite  spirit,  and  made  an  exemplary  confession 
of  faith.  He  recommended  France  and  the  University  of 
Paris  to  their  care  ;  he  exhorted  them  to  concord  and  peace, 
and  to  defend  the  honour  of  the  Church;  and  he  swore '  by  that 
death  he  was  just  now  about  to  undergo,  and  by  the  conscience 
of  his  well-acted  life,  that  he  did  not  think  or  believe  that 
anything  was  decreed  in  the  Council  of  Pisa  but  with  all 
justice  and  integrity,  without  any  deceit  or  fraud.' ^  He 
blessed  them  all.  saying,  '  My  peace  I  give  unto  you,  my  peace 
1  leave  with  you.'  He  bade  them  adieu  ;  he  commended  his  soul 
to  God,  and  shortly  after  midnight  on  the  4th  May  he  died, 
with  a  last  praver  on  his  lips.  The  funeral  sermon  was 
preached  by  a  Franciscan  on  the  text,  '  He  hath  ascended  into 
1  Tartini,  ii.  621.  •*  Platina,  342.  ^  Ibid. 


404     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

heaven.'  The  funeral  Mass  was  said  by  the  Cardinal  of  Viviers 
in  the  church  of  the  Cordeliers ;  the  Pope's  body  was  embalmed 
and  exposed  for  nine  days,  dressed  in  sacerdotal  costume,  with 
gloves  in  the  hands,  and  the  feet  bare  for  the  kisses  of  the 
faithful.  On  the  ninth  day  he  was  buried  in  the  church  of  the 
order  he  loved  so  well,  the  most  beautiful  shrine  in  Bologna. 
There  his  mortal  remains  still  lie  beneath  the  marble  figure  of 
the  Pope  carved  by  Sperandio  of  Mantua. 

Pope  Alexander  the  Fifth  had  reigned  for  ten  months  and 
eight  days.  As  soon  as  he  was  buried  the  cardinals  were  ready 
to  enter  into  conclave.  Carlo  Malatesta  sent  imploring  them 
to  defer  the  election  in  the  hope  of  securing  the  unity  of  the 
Church :  he  suffffested  a  council.  Baldassare  Cossa  answered 
him  that  his  plans  were  not  feasible,  that  a  fresh  council 
would  be  too  tedious,  that  cession  was  impossible  seeing  that 
Gregory  was  in  the  hands  of  King  Ladislas,  that  the  cardinals 
could  not  remain  without  a  head.^  He  added  that  he  himself 
had  done  more  for  the  welfare  of  the  Church  than  others ;  that 
if  a  friend  of  his  were  elected,  it  were  well ;  that  if  an  enemy 
were  chosen  it  might  be  for  the  good  of  his  own  soul.  As 
at  the  previous  election,  Baldassare  Cossa  was  his  own  chief 
opponent.  It  was  not  that  he  did  not  de^re  the  dignity,  but 
that  he,  being  still  in  the  prime  of  life,  did  not  desire  it 
at  that  particular  juncture;  he  would  have  preferred  to 
have  bided  his  time  and,  like  Hildebrand  before  him,  to  have 
remained  the  all-powerful  cardinal  behind  the  papal  throne, 
in  a  position  of  nearly  equal  power,  of  less  responsibility,  of 
greater  opportunity.  He  advised  the  cardinals  to  choose 
Conrad  Caracciolo  as  their  pontiff.  The  Cardinal  of  Malta 
was  a  homely,  unpolished  man  ;  not  learned,  but  of  good  moral 
repute.  A  Neapolitan,  he  had  joined  the  Curia  in  the  time  of 
Urban  the  Sixth,  and  had  served  with  Cossa  in  the  court  of 
Boniface  the  Ninth  :  that  Pope  had  made  him  Bishop  of 
Malta;  in  1405  Innocent  the  Seventh  created  him  Cardinal- 
Priest  of  Saint  Chrysogonus.  He  had  been  at  first  trusted  by 
Gregory  the  Twelfth,  but  had  abandoned  him  to  join  the 
cardinals  at  Pisa;  and  he  had  been  sent  by  Alexander  the 
Fifth  as  Legate  to  Cisalpine  Gaul.     He  had  filled  the  place 

1  Hefele,  vii.  5, 


POPE  ALEXANDER  THE  FIFTH     405 

of  Bnlilassaic  Cossa  at  Bolognn  ;  the  Papal  Lcf^ate  knew  and 
trusted  hini.  The  choice,  however,  would  not  have  delayed 
matters  much,  for  Conrad  Caracciolo  died  at  IJolognain  1411.^ 
The  Duke  of  Anjou,  however,  had  returned  from  France 
and  was  at  Pisa ;  he  sent  emissaries  to  the  cardinals 
urging  them  to  elect  Baldassare  Cossa.  The  French  court 
and  the  Republic  of  Florence  favoured  the  same  candi- 
date. The  habitual  jealousy  of  the  French  and  Italian 
cardinals  being  thus  assuaged,  the  result  was  a  foregone 
conclusion.  But  it  is  doubtful  whether,  even  in  the  interest 
of  Louis  of  Anjou,  such  a  choice  was  not  a  mistake.  A 
fighting  cardinal  would  have  done  the  Pope  more  service  than 
a  partisan  Pope.  The  Popes  were  now  men  of  peace.  The 
days  of  the  fighting  Popes  who  appeared  at  the  head  of  their 
own  armies,  the  days  of  the  Second  Gelasius  and  Calixtus, 
were  nearly  three  hundred  years  past,  and  a  century  had  still 
to  elapse  before  the  advent  of  that  thunderbolt  of  war,  Pope 
Julius  the  Second.  Meantime  the  Popes  were  no  longer 
warriors  and  generals;  their  methods  had  changed.  It  is 
instructive  on  this  point  to  mark  the  difference  between  the 
conduct  of  the  papal  campaign  against  the  Hohenstaufen  and 
that  against  Louis  (5f  Bavaria.  Against  the  former  excom- 
munication had  indeed  not  been  spared ;  but  the  cities  of 
Lombardy  had  been  raised  in  revolt,  and  the  house  of  Anjou 
had  been  invoked  to  conquer  the  last  princes  of  the  rebellious 
house.  War  alone  had  decided  the  event.  Against  Louis  of 
Bavaria,  on  the  other  hand.  Pope  John  the  Twenty-second, 
beyond  the  petty  crusade  of  the  Poles  and  the  petty  attempts 
at  revolt  of  the  Italian  Guelfs,  had  depended  entirely  on  the 
spiritual  arms  of  the  Church,  on  excommunication  and  inter- 
dict. He  arrogated  to  himself  the  collation  to  all  bishoprics, 
and  tried  to  win  over  the  three  archbishops  of  the  Rhine,  but 
he  was  confronted  by  the  towns  and  by  most  of  the  great  lords 
of  Germany  and  by  the  whole  Order  of  the  Franciscan  Friars. 
Marsiglio  of  Padua,  John  of  Jandun,  Englebert  of  Admont 
and  other  ecclesiastics  lent  their  aid  to  the  King,  who  held 
his  own.  Later  on,  during  the  Great  Schism,  Clement  the 
Seventh  had  financed  the  first  Duke  of  Anjou,  and  Benedict 
'  Ciaconius,  ii.  71S. 


406     m  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

the  Thirteenth  had  despatched  galleys  for  Rome,  but  neither 
pontiff  had  taken  any  personal  part  in  the  war.  So  too,  if 
Baldassare  Cossa  became  Pope,  his  fighting  days  were  over ;  as 
a  general  and  a  warrior  he  was  lost  to  the  French  cause,  and  his 
most  conspicuous  role  of  public  usefulness  was  concluded.  In 
this  respect,  therefore,  his  election  as  Pope  was  a  mistake. 

On  the  14th  May  1410  the  cardinals  entered  into  conclave. 
They  were  bricked  up  in  the  great  hall  of  the  Podesta's  Palace, 
the  palace  which  is  surmounted  by  a  large,  square,  open,  battle- 
mented  tower,  the  palace  which  since  1245  had  been  used  as 
the  residence  of  the  city  magistrate.  The  hall  itself  was 
named  after  the  young  and  handsome  poet-king  Enzio,  the 
natural  son  of  the  Emperor  Frederic  the  Second :  men  said 
that  here  he  had  lingered  out  the  days  of  his  weary  captivity, 
and  that  here  he  had  been  solaced  by  the  love  of  the  beautiful 
Lucia  Viadagola.  The  influence  of  the  French  court,  of  the 
Duke  of  Anjou,  and  of  the  Republic  of  Florence  was  too 
powerful  for  resistance:  on  the  17th  May  the  eighteen 
cardinals  issued  from  the  conclave  and  announced  that 
Baldassare  Cossa,  Cardinal-Deacon  of  Saint  Eustachius,  was 
to  be  their  future  Pope.  He  took  the  title  of  Pope  John 
the  Twenty-third. 

Baldassare  Cossa  had  now,  when  little  more  than  forty  years 
of  age,  attained  the  height  of  an  ecclesiastic's  ambition.  He 
had  fulfilled  the  jesting  promise  which  he  made  to  his  fellow- 
students  when  he  left  the  University  of  Bologna.  But  the 
appointment  was  a  mistake,  and  he  himself  must  have  felt  it 
to  be  so.  Hitherto  he  had  been  a  man  of  war;  henceforth  he 
was  to  be  a  man  of  peace,  the  servant  of  the  servants  of  God. 
His  chief  enemy  that  he  knew  was  King  Ladislas  of  Naples ; 
against  him  he  was  to  appear  no  more  in  the  field  of  battle. 
The  new  Pope  was  a  consummate  and  crafty  politician  of  the 
Italian  school,^  but  he  was  nothing  more ;  he  had  no 
experience  of  European  politics,  and  he  was  not  a  statesman. 
He  was  a  Neapolitan,  an  Italian  of  the  Italians.  The  ordinary 
Italian  character  of  his  day  was  devoid  alike  of  religious 
and  of  moral  enthusiasm;  intellectually  and  artistically  it 
was  polished  and  acute  ;  but  it  was  of  the  earth,  earthy ;  it 
^  Ilergenioether,  ii.  849. 


POPE  ALEXANDER  THE  FIFTH     407 

was  incapable    of    the    breadth    of   fcelin};    and    view    which 
distinguishes   the    mere   poHtician    from    the    real   statesman. 
With  but  few  exceptions,  such  as  Carlo  Malatesta,  all   Italian 
politicians  of  that  time  were  opportunists.      The  new   Tope 
might  have   his  envoys  in  the  various  courts  of   Europe,  he 
might  know  the  characters  and  the  motives  of  the  men  who 
played  the  game  of  politics,  he  might  see  the  best  move  for 
the  moment  on   the  political  chessboard,  but  he  would  not 
attempt   to   see    further.      John   Hus's   schemes  for  religious 
reformation,  the  war    between   the    Poles    and    the   Teutonic 
Order,   the    deadly   feud    between  the   Burgundians   and   the 
Armagnacs,  the  war  between  France  and  England,  the  dispute 
as  to  the  succession  in  Spain — these  were  all  mere  moves  on  the 
board  which  he  would  regard  simply  as  they  affected  his  own 
opportunist    policy.       In  character,  though    not  incapable  of 
emotional    excitement,    he    strikingly    resembled     that     later 
Italian  soldier,  politician, and  historian,  Guicciardini.     'Faith, 
religion,    conscience,   self-subordination    to    the    public   good, 
have  no  place  in  his  list  of  human  motives  ;  interest,  ambition, 
calculation,    envy,   are    the    forces    which,   according    to    his 
experience,    move    the    world.'  ^       His    very    virtues    were    a 
disadvantage    for   his    high    office.       He    possessed    '  arts   or 
policy,"'  but  not    dissimulation    or  closeness  ;   and   as   Bacon 
points  out,  the  '  properties  of  arts  or  policy,  and  dissimulation 
or  closeness,  are  indeed  habits  and  faculties  several  and  to  be 
distinguished.'     Gregory  the  Twelfth  vacillated  and  prevari- 
cated   until    no    man    knew    what    he    desired    or    intended. 
Benedict  the  Thirteenth  was  too  often  so  intoxicated  with  the 
exuberance  of  his   own  verbosity   that   it  was   impossible    to 
discover  his  hidden  meaning  or  real  intention  behind  a  cloud 
of  darkening  eloquence.     But  the  new  Pope  spoke  his  mind, 
told   the   truth,   and   kept   his   word;   and   although   we   may 
consider  these  to   be  good  qualities,  they  were  by  no  means 
conducive  to  the  success  of  a  Pope  at  the  beginning  of  the 
fifteenth  century.     Silence,  or  at  least  reticence,  was  preferable 
to  candour  and  plain  speaking. 

A  second  enemy  in  the  Pope's  way  was  the  spirit  of  religious 
reform.      To  an   Italian,  who   worshipped   strength    and    the 
'  Symonds,  i.  238. 


408     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 

beauty  that  waits  on  strength,  the  desire  for  social  and  moral 
reform  was  wellnigh  unintelligible;  and  as  regards  the  demand 
for  reform  of  the  financial  economy  of  the  papacy,  for  that 
reform  for  which  the  clergy  everywhere,  and  the  University  of 
Paris  in  particular,  were  insistent,  it  must  be  remembered  that 
Baldassare  Cossa  had  received  his  early  training  in  the  very 
worst  school  possible,  the  corrupt  and  simoniacal  court  of  Pope 
Boniface  the  Ninth.  Beside  these  two  enemies  there  was  a 
third  unknown  foe  looming  in  the  near  future. 

On  the  17th  May  the  new  Pope  was  elected ;  on  the  18th, 
the  day  following,  died  Rupert,  King  of  the  Romans.  He  had 
come  from  Heidelberg  to  Oppenheim  for  the  Feast  of  Pente- 
cost. He  was  weak  in  health,  and  ordered  his  chancellor, 
Raban  of  Helmstadt,  to  make  a  division  of  the  hereditary 
lands  among  his  surviving  sons.  He  was  expecting  war,  not 
only  with  the  Elector- Archbishop  of  Mainz,  but  with  King 
Wenzel,  who  was  preparing  to  reassert  the  rights  which  the 
Council  of  Pisa  had  recognised.  The  God  of  Battles  was  to 
decide  between  the  rival  Kings.  It  was  according  to  German 
notions  that  it  should  be  so  ;  and  Rupert  had  neglected  his 
manifest  duty  when  he  abandoned  the  strife  with  his  rival  to 
hurry  off  to  Italy.  Not  only  was  he  beaten  in  Italy,  but  he 
produced  a  schism  in  the  empire.  The  end  of  his  reign 
threatened  to  be  a  repetition  of  the  end  of  the  reign  of  the 
previous  Bavarian  king,  his  great-grandfathers  brother,  Louis 
of  Bavaria.^  But  the  King,  who  was  now  fifty-eight  years  of 
age,  grew  weaker  every  day.  As  the  Octave  of  Pentecost 
broke,  the  dying  man  had  the  Mass  read  to  him  and  the 
extreme  unction  administered.  When  the  benediction  was 
pronounced  he  breathed  his  last.  He  died  as  he  had  reigned, 
a  disappointed,  unsuccessful  King.  He  was  an  upright,  clear- 
sighted, well  -  meaning  man,  a  friend  to  learning  and  to 
scholars;  his  great  fault  was  that  he  lacked  concentration  of 
purpose,^  and  knew  not  how  to  adapt  his  means  to  his  ends. 

^  Huebner,  tab.  138. 

^  King  Rupert  failed  to  appreciate  the  fact  that  '  in  the  victorious  days  of  the 
Roman  Republic  it  had  been  the  aim  of  the  senate  to  confine  their  councils  and 
legions  to  a  single  war,  and  completely  to  suppress  a  first  enemy  before  they 
provoked  the  hostilities  of  a  second.'- — Gibbon,  vi.  289. 


POPE  ALEXANDER  THE  FIFTH      KM) 

He  gave  to  '  uiiproportioned  thought  his  act,'  and  hence  his 
uniform  failure.  A  worse  king  would  have  done  better.  His 
death  brought  on  the  negotiations  for  a  new  election  ;  and  the 
third  great  foe  of  Pope  John  the  Twenty-third  was  the  future 
Emperor  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire.  Everything  presaged  a 
troubled  pontificate.  The  future  hid  it  in  darkness  and 
storm. 


INDEX 


HI 


INDEX 


A^./f.— For  the  Kings  of  England  and  France,  see  under  the  respective 
countries  ;  for  those  of  Germany,  see  under  Emperors  and  Kings  of  the 
Romans  ;  for  the  Popes,  see  under  Tope. 


Abbreviatores,  167. 

Abelard,  88,  104. 

Admont,  Englebert  of,  20,  405. 

Adolk     of    Nassau,     Archbishop    of 

Mainz,  114,  165. 
Ar.NANi,  the  outrage  of,  18,  29;   iii, 

"4,  173- 

AiCREGEUiLLE,  Tacqucs  d',  129. 

AiLLY,  Pierre  d  ,  73,  132  ;  his  theo- 
logy, 136-9;  155-7,  176,  178,  186-7, 
189,  194,  206-7,  230  ;  defends  Pope 
Benedict  at  the  fourth  Council  of 
I'aris,  236-8  ;  245,  258-9,  264,  280  ; 
his  Sermon  on  New  Year's  Day 
(1409),  291;  at  Tarascon,  291-2; 
ijreaks  with  Pope  Benedict,  292 ; 
293.  308,  332,  336,  351.  361,  381-2. 

Albano,  Cardinal  of,  358,  368. 

Albert,  Bishop  of  Posen,  318. 

Albert  of  Austria,  53. 

Albert  of  Bavaria,  113. 

Albert  the  Great  (Albertus  Magnus), 

79- 
Albigenses,  37,  83-4,  S8. 
Albornoz,  Cardinal,  145,  213,  222. 
Alexander  of  Hales,  79. 
Alfonso  the  Eleventh  of  Castile,  116. 
Aliman  Adimar,  Archbishop  of  Pisa, 

343,  369- 
Amadeus  of  Savoy,  the  '  Green  Count,' 

147. 
Amalric  of  Bena,  90. 
Andrew,  husband  of  Joanna  of  Naples, 

124. 
Angers,  University  of,  203,  363. 
Anglesola,  Cardinal,  312. 
Anjou— 

Louis,  first  Duke  of,  62,   114,    125, 

132-3,  146-8,  285. 
Louis,  second  Duke  of,  125,  143, 
148-9,  154,  166-7,  190,  204,  236, 
298,  301,  334  ;  his  early  career, 
386-8 ;  comes  to  Pisa  and  joins 
the  League,  38S  ;  reverse  at  Genoa, 
389-90 ;    marches    from    Pisa    to 


Rome,  390-2 ;  leaves  Rome  for 
France,  392,  401  ;  returns  in  time 
for  the  election  of  the  new  Pope, 
405. 

Anne  of  Bohemia,  135. 

Anselm  of  Lucca,  9. 

Anthony  of  Brabant,  197,  244,  321, 

334- 
Antonio,  Bishop  of  Porto,  316. 
Antonio     da     Ritonot,      Franciscan 

friar,  225. 
Antony  de  Bek,  Bishop  of  Durham,  72. 
Aquileia,  Cardinal  of.      See  Caetani. 
Aquileia,   Patriarch  of.      See   Porlo- 

gruario. 
Aquinas,  Saint  Thomas,  17,  79,  88, 

135.  138- 
Archbishops  of  Canterbury,  38. 
Archdeacons,  70-1. 
Arnheim,  Monastery  of  the  Fountain 

of  the  Blessed  Mary  at,  loi. 
Arnold  of  Brescia,  83. 
Artevelde,  Philip  van,  129. 
Arundel,  Archbishop,  321,  345. 
Aston,  Cardinal,  148. 
Aston,  John,  135. 
Auberchicourt,  Eustache  d',  129. 
Augustinus   Triumphus,    his  treatise 

Summa  de  Potestate  Eiclestastica,  23. 
Austin  Canons,  73,  76-7. 
Austin  F'riars  or  Hermits,  102,  395. 
Avignon,  the  Popes  at,  22,  57-8,  105, 

133-4;     negotiations     at,      156-60; 

royal  embassy  at,  176-8. 
Azo  the  Dominican,  179. 

Babylonish  Captivity  at  Avignon,  22. 

Bar,  Jean  de,  109. 

Bar,   Louis  de,    Cardinal,    312,    368, 

373.  375-  .  .   „  , 

Baratterie,  orgammg-housesin  Bologna, 

224-5.  ,     , 

Barbiani,  Manfredo,  217. 
Barbiano,  Alberigo  da,  145,  20l,  215, 

217,  227,  241-2,  304-6,  369,  402. 


412    IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 


Barbiano,  Giovanni  di,  162. 

Bari,  Cardinal  of.     See  Marramaldo. 

Bartholom^us  of  Dordrecht,  97-8. 

Beghards,  the,  91,  93,  268. 

Beguinf.s,  the,  91,  93. 

Benedictine  Monks,  73,  77,  80. 

Benevento,  battle  of,  89. 

Bentivoglio,  Giovanni,  214-6. 

Bernard  of  Clairvaux,  59,  138. 

Berri,  Jean,  Duke  of,  119,  156-7, 
176-7,  179,  185,  188,  200,  204-5, 
207-8,  236,  248,  279,  384. 

Bishops,  character  of,  65-70. 

Black  Death,  the,  68,  73,  75,  80,  92, 
128. 

Blanche,  daughter  of  Henry  the 
Fourth,  200. 

Blau,  Pierre,  Cardinal,  281-2. 

Bologna,  105-6,  154;  politics  of, 
161-2 ;  210;  previous  history  of, 
213-4  ;  taken  by  the  Duke  of  Milan, 
215-6  ;  recovered  by  Baldassare 
Cossa,  217-9;  description  of  the 
city,  220-4;  225-6,  241,  251-2,  273, 
287,  303. 

Bologna,  University  of,  36,  53,  71, 
113,  149,  160,  286,  290,  322,  356, 
361,  363- 

BoNIZO,  his  Liber  ad  Amicum,  9, 

BouciCAUT,  Geoffroi  le  Meingre  dil, 
191-2,  194,  278. 

BOUCICAUT,  Jean  le  Meingre  dit.  Con- 
stable and  Marshal  of  France,  124, 
189,  262-3,  265,  275-6,  278-9,  282-3, 

3IS.  324-7,  355.  389- 
Bourbon,  Louis,  Duke  of,   185,  188, 

200,  383. 
Braccio  da  Montone,  153,  217,  391-2. 
Bracquemont,  Robert  de,  194,  205. 
Bradwardine,  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, 79. 
Brescia,  battle  of,  201. 
Brethren  of  the  Common  Life  (or  Lot), 

98-101  ;  of  the  Free  Spirit,  91,  93, 

97;  of  the  Holy  Spirit,   52;  of  the 

Poor  Life,  87  ;  of  Saint  Antony,  52  ; 

of  Saint  Lazarus,  52. 
Bretigny,  Peace  of,  118. 
BREtJiL,    Ameilh    du.    Archbishop   of 

Tours,  236. 
Brigitta,  Saint,  79,  105. 
Brittany,  Duke  of,  383. 
Bulls,  Papal,  namely — 

Ausculta  Fill,  18. 

Clericis  Laicos,  18. 

Exiit  qui  seminai,  86. 

Omnis  utriusque  sexiis,  394. 

Regnans  in  Excelsis,  393-7. 

Super  Cathedram,  395. 

Unant  Sanctani,  16. 


Burgundy,    Duke    of.      See    John, 

Philip. 
Butillo,  nephew  of  Pope  Urban  the 

Sixth,  62-3,  148,  249. 
BuTRio,  Antonio  di,  252,  302. 

Caetani,  Antonio,  Cardinal  of  Aqui- 

leia,  234,  372. 
Calverley,  Hugh,  129. 
Calvo,    Antonio,    Cardinal    of   Saint 

Praxedes,  368,  373. 
Cambridge,  University  of,  363. 
Canons  of  the  Common  Life,  loi. 
Canossa,   the   Humiliation  of,  9,   il, 

18. 
Canterbury  Tales  quoted,  54,  71,  75, 

78,  81,  142,  164. 
Capponi,  Gino,  300,  325,  327-30. 
Caracciolo,    Conrad,   Cardinal,  370, 

401,  404. 
Cardinals,  Election  of  the  Pope  by 

the    College    of,    7 ;    reputation  of, 

63-4- 
Carmelites,  395-6. 
Carrara,    Francesco    of,    161,    201, 

212,  244. 
Carthusians,  77,  96,  175,  205. 
Caselecchio,  battle  of,  215. 
Castruccio  Castracani,  197,  272-3. 
Cathari,  the,  83-4,  88-90. 
Catharine,  Saint,  74,  76,  105,  107. 
Celestines,  175. 
Cervolles,  Arnaud  de,  Archipretre, 

129,  191, 
Cesena,  the  Bloody  Massacre  of,  58, 

106. 
Chalant,     Antoine     de.     Cardinal, 

281-2,  313,  315,  344,  368,  373,  376. 
Chamberlains,   three  classes  of  papal, 

163. 
Charles,  first  Duke  of  Anjou,  15,  89, 

122,  124,  298. 
Charles  of  Anjou,  younger  brother  of 

Duke  Louis,  166. 
Charles    of    Durazzo,     114,     124-5, 

146-9,  250. 
Charles  the  Third,  King  of  Navarre, 

185,  188,  190. 
Chateau  Renard,  205-6,  208,  246. 
Cheyne,  Sir  John,  321. 
Chichele,  Bishop,  321. 
Church  in  the  Middle  Ages :  temporal 

power  of,  40 ;    as  landowner,  40-2  ; 

as  schoolmaster,  50-2  ;  as  physician, 

52-4. 
CiOMPl,  revolt  of  the,  129. 
Cistercians,  73,  76-7,  80. 
Cividale,  Council  of,  316-20. 
Clergy,  celibacy  of  the,  8. 
Clisson,  Olivier  de,  129. 


INDEX 


418 


COI.OCNK,  91,  94,  96. 

Colon N A,  Canlinal  Odilo,  364. 

Coi-ONNA,  Giovanni,  239,  266,  29S, 
391-2. 

CoLONNA,  Nicolo,  239,  266,  298,  392, 
397-8. 

CoLONNA,  Sciarra,  18,  29. 

'  Compagnies,  les  grandes,'  129. 

CoNKAU,  Archbishop  of  Mainz,  165. 

CoNRAU  of  Gchihausen,  132,  293. 

Conrad  of  Soest,  346,  34S. 

Conrad  Schmidt,  92. 

Conrad  Waldhauser,  102-3. 

CoNRAUiN,  15. 

Corrario,  Angelo.  See  Pope  Gregory 
the  Twelfth. 

Corrario,  Antonio,  Cardinal,  252-3, 
255-6,  260,  262,  276-7,  286,  294, 
316. 

Corrario,  Paolo,  276,  278,  302. 

CoRTONA,  306-7,  389. 

CossA,  Baldassare,  the  family  of, 
140- 1  ;  a  corsair,  142-4;  character 
of,  144-5 ;  ^  student  at  Bologna, 
149-52  ;  Archdeacon  of  Bologna, 
160;  first  takes  arms,  161-2  ;  private 
chamberlain  of  Boniface  the  Ninth, 
1627;  hostility  of  Niem  to,  168; 
character  of,  170;  Cardinal  and 
Legate  at  Bologna,  211;  recaptures 
Bologna  and  makes  treaty  with 
Milan,  216-9;  his  pontifical  entry, 
220 ;  public  works  and  rule,  224 ; 
his  taxes,  224-5  ;  puts  down  plots, 
226-7  ;  obtains  Faenza,  227  ;  invites 
Pope  Innocent  to  Bologna,  239 ; 
plots  in  Bologna,  241  ;  war  with 
Alberigo  da  Barbiano,  241-2;  sup- 
ports the  party  of  neutrality  in 
Germany,  244,  293  ;  sends  ambas- 
sadors to  Pope  Benedict,  245,  251  ; 
writes  to  Pope  Gregory,  251  ;  is  dis- 
trusted by  him,  267  ;  leads  the  party 
for  a  council,  ^76,  283  ;  author  of 
the  Council  of  Pisa,  286 ;  makes  a 
league  with  Florence,  2S7,  301, 
309  ;  obtains  approval  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Bologna  to  the  Council  of 
Pisa,  290,  302  ;  prevails  on  Florence 
to  allow  the  council  to  be  held  at 
Pisa,  302  ;  burns  the  Bull  of  Pope 
Gregory,  303,  305  ;  drives  back  the 
troops  of  King  Ladislas,  306,  353  ; 
comes  to  Pisa,  369-70;  his  reply  to 
the  ambassadors  of  Pope  Benedict, 
372  ;  declines  the  papal  crown,  373  ; 
at  the  council,  377.  386,  388-90 ; 
marches  with  the  Duke  of  Anjou  to 
Rome,  390-2  ;  takes  Pope  Aelxander 
to  Bologna,  400-1  ;  marches  to  For- 


limpopolo,  403  ;  returns  because  of 
the  Pope's  illness,  403  ;  is  elected 
Pope,  404-6;  reflections  on  liis 
election,  406-9. 

Council,  planofagcncral,  first  broached, 
131-2. 

COURTECUISSE,  Jean,  179,  184,  235, 
280. 

CouKTRAi,  battle  of,  18. 

Ckamaud,  Simon  de.  Patriarch  of 
Alexandria,  158,  174,  176,  179, 
185-6,  188,  192,  199,  235-8,  255-8, 
263,  281-2,  298,  311,  321,  334,  345, 
354,  358-9,  36' -2,  365.  367-8.  372-3. 
376. 

Cros,  Jean  de,  Cardinal  of  Limoges, 
108. 

Cros,  Pierre  de.  Chamberlain,  in. 

Dancers,  the,  93. 

Dante,  his  De  Monarchia,  20-2. 

David  of  Dinant,  90. 

Decameron  quoted,  63,  223. 

Decretals  of  Isidore,  4,  9. 

Des  Champs,  Gilles,  136,  156-7,  177, 
183,  188,  235,  248,  256,  354,  361. 

Despenser,  Henry,  Bishop  of  Nor- 
wich, 67,  113. 

Deventer,  House  of  the  Brethren  of 
the  Common  Life  at,  99. 

Diciatus  Papa:,  9. 

Dieudonnk,  Cardinal,  9 

DoLciNO  of  Novara,  87. 

Do.minic,  Saint,  79,  88. 

Dominican  Friars,  13,  79-80,  102,  104, 
394-6. 

Donation  of  Charlemagne,  9. 

Donation  of  Constantme,  3,  6,  16,  20- 
21,  24,  27. 

Dubois,  Pierre,  137. 

DURAZZO,  house  of,  supports  the  Pope 
at  Rome,  114,  153. 

Ecclesiastical  Courts,  36-7,  43. 

EcKARD  of  Cologne,  90. 

Electors  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire, 

21,  23-4,  33. 
Elizabeth  of  Goerhtz,  185. 
Emblems    of   the    relationship   of   the 

Church  and  the  Empire,  namely — the 

soul  and  the  body,  6,    12;   the  sun 

and  the  moon,  12,  15,  21  ;  the  two 

swoids,  12,  20-21. 
Empire,  Holy  Roman — first  stage,  2  ; 

second  stage,  5  ;  third  stage,  16. 
Emperors  and  Kings  of  the  Romans, 
namely — 

Adolf  of  Nassau,  42,  165,  294. 

Alfonso  of  Castile,  16. 

Charles  the  Great,  2-3,  5,  21,  156. 


414    IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 


Emperors  and  Kings  {cotttimted) — 
Charles  the  Fat,  5. 
Charles  the  Fourth,  24,  31-4,92-3, 
101-2,  117,  119-20,  129,  131,  295. 
CONSTANTINE  the  Great,  i,  12. 
CoNSTANTiNE  the  Sixth,  i,  2. 
Frederic  Barbarossa,  io-ii,  130, 

150,  195- 
Frederic    the  Second,   13-15)   29, 

124,  406. 
Henry  the  Fowler,  5. 
Henry  the  Second,  52,  82. 
Henry  the  Third,  3. 
Henry  the  Fourth,  9,  10. 
Henry  the  Fifth,  10,  42. 
Henry  the  Seventh  (of  Luxemburg), 

23- 
Louis  of  Bavaria,  23-31,  57,  87,  92, 

133.  I97»  361,  405,  408. 

Otto  the  Great,  5,  6. 

Otto  the  Third,  3,  21. 

Otto  the  Fourth,  1 1. 

Philip  of  Swabia,  11. 

Rudolf  of  Habsburg,  16,31,37, 128. 

Rupert  III.  (nicknamed  Clem),  King 
of  the  Romans,  68-9,  119-20,  165, 
184,  196  ;  together  with  the  Arch- 
bishops of  the  Rhine  summons 
Wenzel  to  appear  at  Oberlahnstein, 
197  ;  Wenzel  deposed  and  Rupert 
elected,  198 ;  his  early  measures, 
199-200;  his  unsuccessful  campaign 
in  Italy,  200-2  ;  is  recognised  by 
Pope  Boniface,  203  ;  his  quarrel 
with  John  of  Nassau,  243-4 ;  269, 
272  ;  discontented  with  a  council 
at  Pisa,  292  ;  summons  a  Diet  at 
Frankfurt,  293-4;  308,  311,  316, 
318-9,  321,  345  ;  his  embassy  at 
Pisa,  346-9  ;  their  arguments  re- 
futed, 356-7,  360,  380,  383-4 ;  his 
death,  408. 

Wenzel,  King  of  the  Romans,  King 
of  Bohemia,  33,  42,  69,  94,  113, 
117,  119-21,  131-2,  159,  164-5,182, 
184  ;  meets  Charles  the  Sixth  at 
Reims,  185  ;  186-7  ;  degeneracy  of 
his  government,  195  ;  charges  of 
the  Electors  leading  to  his  deposi- 
tion, 196-8  ;  199-200,  202-3,  242-4, 
247,  267,  269,  272  ;  writes  to  Pope 
Gregory  and  to  the  Cardinals  at 
Pisa,  295;  changes  the  constitution 
of  the  University  of  Prague,  295-7; 
declares  for  neutrality,  296,  357, 
386. 
England,  5,  8,  18,  24,  57,  61-2,  67-9, 

71-3.   75-7,   80,   89-90,   113,   117-9, 

128-9,  134-5,  142,  150,  181,  199,  294, 

311,  318,  321,  322,  334,  354,  394. 


England,  Kings  of,  namely — 

Edward  the  First,  18,  34,  68. 

Edward  the  Third,  18,  31,  53,  61, 
90,  117,  122,  126. 

Henry  the   Fourth,  67,    199,  267, 
311,  321,  334. 

John  Lackland,  37, 

Richard  of  the  Lion  Heart,  11,  66. 

Richard   the  Second,   11 7-8,    148, 
181,  196. 

William  the  Conqueror,  17. 
Englishman,  the  importunate,   at   the 

Council  of  Pisa,  360,  380. 
Eon  of  the  Star,  83. 
EsTE,  Nicolas  of,  Marquess  of  Ferrara, 

200,    217,    219,    241-2,    305,    370; 

receives  the  Golden  Rose,  402. 
Ezzelino  da  Romano,  37,  88. 

Facing  Cane,  211,  215,  217-8,  226, 

389- 

Faenza,  227.     Lord  of,  see  Manfredi. 

Faustrecht  in  Germany,  37. 

Feast  of  the  Ass,  46-7  ;  Feast  of  Fools, 
46,  58  ;  Festivals,  45  ei  seq. 

Ferrara,  106,  216,  227.  Marquess 
of,  see  Este. 

Ferrier,  Boniface,  368,  371-2. 

Fieschi,  Louis,  Cardinal,  312,  344. 

FiLARGi,  Pietro  (or  Petrus),  Cardinal 
of  Milan,  283,  286,  302  ;  his  early 
life,  342  ;  his  sermon,  343  ;  his  dis- 
course with  Carlo  Malatesta,  352-3  ; 
362 ;  recommended  by  Baldassare 
Cossa  as  Pope  and  elected,  373-4. 
See  Pope  Alexander  the  Fifth. 

FiLASTRE,  Guillaume,  Dean  of  Reims, 
236,  238. 

Flagellants,  the,  92,  194. 

Flandrin,  Jean,  Cardinal,  312,  344. 

Flandrin,  Pierre,  Cardinal,  107. 

Florence,  106,  no,  129, 131, 161,194, 
200,  210,  213-5,  219,  242,  248,  252, 
273,  276-7,  286-7 ;  in  favour  of 
neutrality,  300 ;  jealous  of  French 
influence,  300  ;  makes  a  league  with 
Baldassare  Cossa,  287,301,309  ;  tem- 
porises with  King  Ladislas,  301-2  ; 
agrees  to  the  council  being  held  at 
Pisa,  302  ;  provincial  council  held, 
and  obedience  withdrawn  from  Pope 
Gregory,  303-4 ;  its  dealings  with 
King  Ladislas,  305-6 ;  declares 
neutrality,  310;  321,  366,  378, 
390. 

Florentius,  Bishop  of  Utrecht,  97-8, 
loi. 

Fondi,  III,  180. 

FORLI,  241,  303,  402. 
FORLIMPOPOLO,  402. 


INDEX 


41. 1 


France,  Kings  of,  namely — 
Charles   the   Kifth,    113-5,    ii7-S, 

125,  129,  132-3,  174. 
Chari.es  the  Sixth,  64,  117-9,  14S-9, 
154,  156-9,  174-6,  iSi-2,  1S5,  187, 
189-90,  193,  200,  203-8,  214,  238, 
247-8, 254, 260,  265, 267, 269, 279- 
81,  291-2,  312,  315,   321-2,  324, 
326,  334,  382.3,  397. 
John  the  Good,  270. 
Louis  (IX.),  Saint,  128,  173. 
Philip  Augustus,  37. 
Philip  the  Fair,  18-19,  26-7,  34,  57, 

68,  173. 
Philip  of  V'alois,  18. 
Francis,  Saint,  of  Assisi,  46,  79,  85-6, 

96-7. 
Franciscan  Friars,   13,   29,   45,  57, 
79-81,  86-7,  104,  133-4,  375,  395-7. 
Frankfurt,  Diet  at  {1338),  24;  Diet 
^t    (1397),    183-5;    meeting   of    the 
Electors    at    (1400),     197  ;    Diet   at 
(1409),  293-4. 
Franz  of  Arabda,  253. 
Fratecelli,  the,  S7-S. 
Frederic,  Archbishop  of  Cologne,  42, 

61,  165,  196-8,  201. 
Frederic  of  Brunswick,  198. 
Free  Thinkers,  sect  of  the,  133. 
Friars,  the,  36,  41,  57,  79-82. 
Friedrich,    Burggraf  of  Nuernberg, 
201,  384. 

Galeotto  de  Normannis,  the  '  Knight 

of  Freedom,'  266. 
Gambacorti,  Giovanni,  328-30. 
Garzon,  John,  of  Bologna,  222-3. 
Genoa,  124,  153,  194,  228,  234,  253, 

257,  260,  262-5,  271,  321,  388-90. 
Gerard  of  Borgo  San  Donnino,  86. 
GerarddePuy, Cardinal,  63, 105, 116. 
Gerhard  Groot,  79,  94,  96-101. 
Gerson,    Jean    Charlier    de,    57,    74, 

132,  136,  139,  156,  176,  178-9,  194, 
204-5,  207 ;  his  New  Year's  Day 
sermon,  229-30 ;  237,  239,  245,  250, 

258,  264,  280,  285  ;  breaks  with 
Pope  Benedict,  292  ;  293,  332,  335-7, 
380-1,  397. 

Gilbertines,  the,  76. 

Gile,  Jean,  Cardinal  of  Li^ge,  278. 

Giovanni,    the   Dominican   Cardinal, 

195,  248,  268,  277,  297-8,  300,  316. 
Golden  Bull,  the,  24,  33. 
Golden  Rose,  the,  402. 
Gondulmaro,  Gabriel,  260,  262,277. 
Gonzaga,  Francesco  of,  200,  212. 
GOREL,  Jean  de,  396. 
Governolo,   defeat   of  the   Milanese 

at,  162. 


Go/./.adini,  Bonifacio,  217,  226. 
GOZZADINI,  Gabbiunc,  226-7. 
Gozzadini,  Nannc,  214-7,  219,  226-7, 

241. 
Grange,    Jean    dc    la.    Cardinal     of 

Amiens,  i  lo-ii,  114. 
Grossrtestk,  Bishop,  62,  68,  76,  79. 
Guinigi,   Paolo  de,   Lord  of  Lucca, 

268,  272-3,  277-8,  299. 

Hallam,  Robert,  Bishop  of  Salisbury, 
passes  through  Paris,  336 ;  arrives 
at  Pisa,  354  ;  preaches  in  the  Cathe- 
dral, 355  ;  takes  part  in  the  discus- 
sion as  to  the  welcome  to  be  accorded 
to  the  ambassadors  of  Pope  Benedict, 
358 ;  and  as  to  the  union  of  the 
Colleges,  359. 

HEDWiG,daughterofLouisof  Hungary, 
117. 

Henry  of  Castile,  1S4,  190,  200,  203, 
240. 

Henry  of  Kalkar,  96. 

Henry  of  Langenstein,  63,  78,  93,  132, 
135,  229,  285,  293. 

Henry  of  Trastamara,  117. 

Henry  of  Waldeck,  198. 

Henry  of  Winchester,  318. 

Hieronymus,  the  Austin  Friar,  316, 
318. 

Hohenstaufen,  10-15,  22,  57,  405. 

Hus,  John,  30,  82,  90,  104,  136,  142, 
296,  401. 

Isabel  of  Bavaria,  Queen  of  France, 
118,  200,  269. 

Italy,  political  and  social  develop- 
ment of,  12 1 -4. 

Jacopo  of  Carrara,  201. 
Jacopo  of  Friuli,  Cardinal,  277. 
Jageli.o,  King  of  Lithuania,  117. 
Jean  de  Nevers,  afterwards  Duke  of 

Burgundy,  119. 
Jean  de  Varennes,  175. 
Jenzenstein,  Archbishop  of  Prague, 

195. 
Joachim  of  Flora,  86. 
Joanna,  Duchess  of  Brabant,  197. 
Joanna  the  First,  Queen  of  Naples, 

114-5,  124,  146,  190. 
JOFFRiD  of  Leiningen,  165. 
John,  King  of  Bohemia,  53. 
John,  Archbishop  of  Riga,  346. 
John,   Duke  of  Burgundy,  229,  244, 

269-71,  279,  291-2,  311,   321,  329, 

334,  382-3. 
John,  King  of  Castile,  132,  181. 
I  John  of  Gaunt,  Duke  of  Lancaster,  45, 

89,117. 


416    IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCn.S 


John  of  Jandun,  26,  28,  405. 

John  of  Nassau.     6V^  Nassau. 

John  of  Paris,  his  Traclatus  de  Potestate 
regia  et  papali,  19-20,  137. 

John  of  Parma,  86. 

John  of  Salisbury,  17,  71. 

John  of  Weinheim,  346. 

Jordan  of  Osnabruck,  20. 

JOST  of  Moravia,  Elector  of  Branden- 
burg, 197. 

Jubilee,  the,  163. 

Knights  Hospitallers,  13. 
Knights  of  Saint  John,  52. 
Knights  Templars,  13,  52. 
Kuno  of  Falkenstein,  Archbishop  of 
Trier,  42. 

Ladislas,  King  of  Naples,  125,  149, 
153-4,  165;  marriages  of,  166;  167, 
202,  210;  his  intrigues  at  Rome  in 
the  time  of  Pope  Innocent,  233,  239- 
40;  242,  248,  251,  261-3,  266-7, 
273-7,  283,  287  ;  opposes  the  Council 
of  Pisa,  292;  297-8;  answers  the  re- 
buke of  Pope  Gregory,  298  ;  captures 
Rome,  299 ;  sends  embassy  to  Pope 
Gregory,  300  ;  marches  towards 
Florence,  301-2  ;  sends  embassy  to 
the  Cardinals  at  Pisa,  304 ;  marches 
from  Rome,  305 ;  his  alliance  declined 
by  the  Florentines,  306 ;  ravages 
Tuscany  but  is  forced  to  retreat,  306-7; 
remains  faithful  to  Pope  Gregory, 
320 ;  declines  the  invitation  of  the 
Pisans,  327  ;  embassy  from  the 
Council  of  Pisa,  355-7  ;  turn  of 
affairs  in  Genoa  favours  him,  389  ; 
the  allies  march  to  Rome  and  drive 
out  his  troops,  390-2,  397-9  ;  Pope 
Alexander's  Bull  against,  399-400. 

Lateran  Council,  first  (1124),  10; 
second  (1139),  65  ;  third  (1179),  84  ; 
fourth  {1215),  394-6. 

Latin,  the  universal  language  of  edu- 
cated people,  35. 

Lay  teachers,  52. 

Legano,  battle  of,  11. 

Leghorn  (Livorno),  228,  273,  278, 
281-3,  285-6. 

Leonardo  of  Arezzo,  260,  274. 

Leopold,  Duke  of  Austria,  201,  293. 

Lerins,  Monastery  on  the  Isle  of,  245, 
265. 

'  Liberty  of  December,'  46. 

LitGE,  193-     Cardinal  of,  see  Gile. 

LoLLi,  Paolo,  320. 

Lopez,  Sancho,  279-81. 

Louis  the  Great  of  Hungary,  113,  125, 
131. 


Louis,   Count  Palatine,  son   of  King 

Rupert,  200-1. 
Louis  de  Male,  Count  of  Flanders,  11 3. 
Louis  of  Tarentum,  married  Joanna  of 

Naples,  124. 
Lucca,   194,   200,   253-4,    263,   268, 

272-4,  276-8,  284,  300-2.     Lord  of, 

see  Guinigi. 
Luciferans,  the,  91. 
Luna,  Pedro  de,  107-8,  in,  116,  157, 

159;  elected  Pope,  160.     See  Pope 

Benedict  the  Thirteenth. 
Lupold  of  Bebenburg,  21. 
Lyons,  15,  84;  Council  of,  15. 

Maillesec  (or  Malesset),  Guy  de, 
Cardinal  of  Palestrina,  also  known 
as  the  Cardinal  of  Poitiers,  206,  273, 
281,  340,  342-3,  358. 

Maillotins,  the,  130. 

Malaspina,  Lionardo,  217. 

Malatesta,  Carlo,  Lord  of  Rimini, 
152,  162,  169,  201,  215,  217-9,  226, 
242,  303,  305-6,  308,  310,  320,  345  ; 
his  negotiations  at  Pisa,  349-53  '■>  360. 
380,  404,  407. 

Malatesta  de'  Malatesti,  Lord  of 
Pesaro,  252,  390,  392,  398-9. 

Malatesta  de  Pandolfo  de'  Malatesti, 

304- 
Maltraversi  of  Bologna,  214. 
Manfredi,     Astorre     de'.     Lord     of 

Faenza,  227,  241. 
Mantua,    213,    215.      Lord    of,    see 

Gonzaga. 
Manuel,  Emperor  at  Constantinople, 

119. 
Manupello,  Cardinal  of,  148. 
Maramaur,  Cardinal,  370. 
Marbach,  League  of,  240,  243,  293. 
Marguerite,  mother  of  King  Ladislas, 

148,  153,  166. 
Marie  de  Bretagne,  125,  386-7. 
Marramaldo,  Landolfo,  Cardinal  of 

Bari,  294. 
Marseilles,  251-4,  256  ;  Treaty  of, 

253,  259. 
Marsiglio   of  Padua,    author  of  the 

Defensor  Pads,    26-8,    31,   74,    134, 

137.  405- 
Martin,  King  of  Aragon,   181,  191, 

200,  203,  268,  313,  320,  370. 
Maso  degli  Albizzi,  325,  328. 
Matthew,  Bishop  of  Worms,  68,  346, 

383-4- 
Matthias  of  Janow,  103,  135. 
Megliorati,    Cosmato.       See    Pope 

Innocent  the  Seventh. 
Megliorati,   Ludovico   de',   239-40, 

250,  261,  266,  298,  327. 


INDEX 


H7 


MuHAKi.  of  Ccsena,  29,  87,  133. 
Milan,  86,  88,   148,  161-2,  200,  218, 

321. 
MiLic  of  Bohemia,  102-3. 
MiNULTULUS,  Cardinal,  210,  262. 
MONCHHUYSEN,  Monastery  at,  96. 
Monks,  the,  41,  51-2,  59,  76-8. 
MoNTKERRAT,  Theodor,  Marquess  of, 

267,  390. 
MoNTPEi.LiER,  University  of,  53,  203, 

280. 
Mount  Saint  Agnes,  monastery  of,  lOl. 
MuHLDORK,  battle  of,  24. 
MuRLES,  Pierre  de,  114. 
MusTARDA  of  Forli,  240,  261. 

Naples,  124-5,  140,  143,  i47-9)  'Sji 
166-7,  252,  292,  302,  305,  307,  387. 

Nassau,  John  of.  Archbishop  of  Mainz, 
61,  165,  183-4,  196-8  ;  his  struggle 
with  King  Rupert,  243-4  ;  leads  the 
party  of  neutrality  in  Germany,  244, 
293-41  383-4,  408. 

Nationality,  rise  of  the  feeling  of,  25. 

Nice,  245,  253,  265. 

Nicolas  de  Clamanges,  63-4,  73,  79, 
136,  156,  175,  204,  280. 

NicoPOLis,  battle  of,  120. 

Niem  (or  Nyem,  or  Nieheim),  Dietrich 
von,  144,  167-9,  211,  293,  400,  403. 

NoELLET,  Guillaume  de.  Cardinal,  105, 
107. 

Novara,  Bishop  of,  365,  372. 

Nuernberg,  28,  199. 

Nunneries,  78. 

Oberlahnstein,  197-8. 

Ordelasi,  Giorgio,  402. 

Orleanists  and  Armagnacs,  118. 

Orleans,  Duchess  of.  See  Visconti, 
Valentine. 

Orleans,  Louis,  Dukeof,  1 19, 148, 156- 
7,  176,  178,  182,  185-6,  188,  192; 
becomes  protector  of  Pope  Benedict, 
193-4  ;  200,  204 ;  brings  about  the 
restitution  of  obedience  in  France, 
207-8 ;  209,  230,  233.  244-5,  254,  258, 
267  ;  his  character  and  assassination, 
269-71 :  324,  3S2. 

Orleans,  University  of,  203,  363. 

Orsini,  Cardinal  Jacopo,  107-8,  116. 

Orsini,  Paolo,  condottiere  general, 
217,  226,  239-40,  261-2,  266-7,  274-S' 
298-9.  391-2,  397-9. 

Otto,  Bishop  of  Minden,  70. 

Otto,  Duke  ol  Brunswick,  114. 

Ottobuon,  Terzo,  305-6,  370. 

Oxford,  University  of,  36,  133,  179, 
285. 

Paderborn,  Bishop  of,  70. 


Padua,  200,  212,  215. 

Palestkina,  Cardinal  of.  See  Mail- 
lesec. 

Papacy,  work  of  the,  59  ;  revenues  of 
the,  60-2 ;  indirect  utilities  of  it.s 
usurpations,  172. 

Papi  da  Calcinaia,  328. 

Paris,  first  Council  of,  175;  second 
Council  of,  182  ;  third  Council  of, 
188  ;  fourth  Council  of,  235-8  ;  fifth 
Council  of,  279-81. 

Paris,  University  of,  19,  26,  36,  50-1, 
S3,  56-7,  62,  96,  103-4,  133,  135-6, 
157-8,  171,  174-6,  178,  186,  189, 
205,  234,  245,  254,  258,  260,  280, 
285-6,  290,  296,  311,  322,  356,  361, 
363,  367,  381-2,  394,  403. 

Patarines,  36,  83. 

Peckham,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 

79- 
Pedro  the  Cruel,  of  Castile,  117. 
Pepoli  of  Bologna,  213. 
Perpignan,  241,  273,  276,  283,  288, 

299,  303  ;  Council  of,  312-5. 
Perugia,  63,  105,  153-4,  213,  216,  218, 

30s,  307- 

Peter  Martyr,  89. 

Peter  of  Aragon,  25. 

Peter  of  Corbara,  29. 

Peter  of  Luxemburg,  156,  175. 

Peter's  Pence,  59. 

Petit, Jean,  235-6,  256, 271,  279.  311, 
382. 

Petrus  de  Anchorano,  302,  349,  356-7. 

Petrus  Ser  Mini,  302. 

Philip,  Duke  of  Burgundy,  113,  119, 
156-8,  174,  176,  178-9,  182,  188,200, 
204-5,  207-8  ;  death  of,  229. 

Physicians  in  the  Middle  Ages,  52-3. 

Piancaldolo,  242. 

Pierre  de  Bruys,  83. 

PlERRE-Ies-Ba-ufs,  236. 

PiKKRE  du  Bois,  his  Quaesiio  de  Poten- 
tate Papae,  19. 

AVrj/'/owwrt«, quoted,  37-8, 45,  64,75. 

PiETRA  Sancta,  263-4,  268,  272. 

Piracy  in  the  Middle  Ages,  142-3. 

Pisa,  122,  194,  213,  216,  273,  278, 
285-8,  309  ;  history  of  the  city  from 
1402  to  1409,  323-330  ;  condition  of 
the  city  at  the  time  of  the  Council, 
333,  338-40  ;  election  of  the  Pope  at, 
373-4  ;  arrival  of  the  Duke  of  Anjou 
at,  388  ;  the  army  leaves  for  Rome, 
390;  the  Pope  leaves  Pisa,  393. 

Pisa,  the  Archbishop  of,  Aliman 
Adimar,  343. 

Pisa,  the  Council  of,  first  suggestion 
of,  282  •.  the  Florentines  at  the  inter- 
vention of  Baldassare  Cossa  consent 


418     IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 


to  the  Council  being  held  at  Pisa, 
285,  287,  309,  330 ;  objections  to 
its  convocation,  2S5-6,  288,  337-8  ; 
supported  by  the  University  of  Bo- 
logna, 290 ;  welcomed  in  France, 
290-2 ;  opposed  by  King  Rupert, 
293-4  ;  welcomed  by  King  Wenzel, 
295-7  ;  opposed  by  King  Ladislas, 
297-300  ;  attitude  of  Florence  to- 
wards, 300-4  ;  King  Ladislas  attacks 
and  Baldassare  Cossa  defends  the 
Council,  305-7  ;  attitude  of  King 
Sigismund  towards,  307-9 ;  attitude 
of  Venice  and  of  Carlo  Malatesta, 
309-10  ;  attitude  of  England  towards, 
311,  321  ;  strongly  supported  by 
France,  311;  attitude  of  Europe  gene- 
rally, 321  ;  importanceof  the  Council 
as  an  anti-papal  movement,  33 1  -3 ;  the 
assemblage  at  the  Council,  334-5,  354- 
5  ;  Gerson  speaks  and  writes  in  sup- 
port of  the  Council,  335- 7:  the  Council 
opened,  338-41  ;  first  general  session 
of  the  Council,  342-4  ;  the  second, 
344  ;  third,  344 ;  fourth,  346-8  ;  fifth, 
353-4;  sixth,  355;  seventh,  355-8; 
eighth,  358-9  ;  ninth,  359-60  ;  tenth, 
eleventh,  and  twelfth,  360-2 ;  thir- 
teenth, 363;  fourteenth,  364;  fifteenth 
session  at  which  the  rival  Popes 
were  deposed,  364-6 ;  sixteenth 
and  seventeenth  sessions,  367-9; 
eighteenth,  370- 1 ;  nineteenth,  372-3  ; 
twentieth,  376-7  ;  twenty-first,  378  ; 
twenty-second,  379 ;  twenty-third  and 
last  session,  379  ;  the  Easter  services, 
344-5  ;  King  Rupert's  embassy  before 
the  Council,  346-8 ;  their  flight, 
348-9  ;  their  arguments  considered 
and  refuted,  356-7  ;  Carlo  Malatesta 
and  the  Council,  349-53  ;  arrival  of 
the  English  embassy,  354-5;  commis- 
sion appointed  for  taking  evidence 
against  the  Popes,  357  ;  Feast  of  the 
Apparition  of  Saint  Michael,  358  ; 
arrival  of  Bulls  from  Pope  Benedict, 
361-2  ;  the  evidence  as  to  heresy, 
362;  the  Bishop  of  Novara'sassembly, 
363-4  ;  discussion  as  to  the  modus 
eligendi  of  the  new  Pope,  367-8  ; 
arrival  of  Cardinal  de  Chalant,  368  ; 
resolution  as  to  reformation  of  the 
Church,  369 ;  Pope  Benedict's  am- 
bassadors meet  a  commission,  370-2  ; 
election  of  the  new  Pope,  373-4 ; 
nature  of  the  remaining  sessions,  376  ; 
coronation  of  Pope  Alexander  the 
Fifth,  377-8  ;  results  of  the  Council, 
379-82  ;  Sigismund  and  Venice  desert 
Pope  Gregory,  385-6  ;  Pope  Alexan- 


der's   dying    declaration    regarding 

the  council,  403. 
PiSTOjA,  399-400. 
PiTTi,  Luigi,  301. 
Plaoul,   Pierre,    135,   182,  235,   256, 

281,  311,  363. 
Poitiers,  Cardinal  of.     See  Maillesec. 
Poland,  24,  119,  131,  322,  334,  380. 
PoMUK,  Johann  von,  195. 
Poor  Men  of  Lyons,  84-5. 
Pope  Adrian  the  Fourth,  38. 
Pope  Alexander  the  Second,  7-8. 
Pope  Alexander  the  Third,  11,  84, 

188. 
Pope    Alexander   the    Fourth,    37, 

394. 

Pope  Alexander  the  Fifth  (j-^i?  Filargi, 
Pietro),  38  ;  his  election,  373-4  ;  the 
news  of  the  election,  375  ;  presides 
at  the  Council  of  Pisa,  376-7  ;  is 
crowned,  37S  ;  winds  up  the  Council, 
379  ;  is  acknowledged  by  Venice  and 
by  Sigismund  of  Hungary,  385-6 ; 
his  election  a  triumph  for  the  French 
party,  386  ;  negotiations  with  Genoa, 
390 ;  leaves  Pisa,  393 ;  his  Bull, 
Regnans  in  Excelsis,  393-7  ;  his  Bull 
against  King  Ladislas,  399  ;  goes  to 
Bologna,  400- 1 ;  his  action  at  Bologna, 
401-2  ;  his  death,  403. 

Pope  Benedict  the  Ninth,  6. 

Pope  Benedict  the  Eleventh,  22,  38. 

Pope  Benedict  the  Twelfth,  38,  57, 
60,  87,  160,  190. 

Pope  Benedict  the  Thirteenth,  160; 
character  of,  172-4 ;  sends  am- 
bassadors to  the  French  King,  174-6  ; 
receives  royal  embassy  at  Avignon, 
176-8  ;  manifestations  in  favour  of, 
179;  the  'way  of  convention'  his 
favourite  scheme,  180-1  ;  embassies 
of  the  three  kings  to,  182-3  5  the 
'  way  of  cession '  proposed  to  and 
disapproved  by,  185-7  ;  Council  of 
Paris  favours  subtraction  of  obedience 
from,  188-90;  besieged  at  Avignon, 
190-2  ;  negotiations  during  captivity, 
193-4  ;  restitution  of  obedience  to, 
203-5  '  escape  from  Avignon,  205-6  ; 
restitution  of  obedience  in  France  and 
publication  of  Bulls,  207-8  ;  recon- 
ciliation with  the  King  of  France, 
208-9  '■>  his  policy  after  his  escape, 
227-8 ;  thanks  the  University  of 
Paris,  230 ;  sends  ambassadors  to 
Rome,  230-2  ;  secures  the  obedience 
of  Genoa  and  Pisa,  233 ;  goes  to 
Genoa,  234  ;  attacked  and  defended 
in  the  fourth  Council  of  Paris,  234-8 ; 
issues  Bulls  for  a  Council,  240  ;  de- 


INDEX 


419 


clines  to  come  to  Bologna,  245,  251  ; 
his  position  after  his  escape,  245-6 ; 
his  measures  on  the  death  of  I'opc 
Innocent,  247-8  ;  his  first  letter  from  1 
and  to  Pope  Grej^ory,  251-2;  receives 
his  ambassadors  and  aijrccs  to  meet 
his  rival  at  Savona,  252-3  ;  concludes  1 
the  Treaty  of  Marseilles,  253  ;   em-  | 
bassy  sent  to  him  from  Paris,  254-6 ;  | 
his  conferences  with  the  ambassadors,  1 
256-9  ;    prepares  a  Bull    of  excom- 
munication,   260  ;    his   ambassadors  1 
at    Rome,    261-4  ;    writes    to    Pope  1 
Gregory,  265  ;  goes  to  Savona,  266  : 
agrees  to  go  to  Porto  \'encre,  268-9  ! 
reaches    Porto   Venere,   271  ;    sends 
ambassadors  to  Pope  Gregory  pro- 
posing a  meeting,  272-3  ;  his  favours 
to  Marshal  Boucicaut,  278  ;  receives 
ultimatum  from  France  and  sends  his 
Bull    of  excommunication,    279 ;    is 
disowned  by  France,  280-1  ;  sends 
cardinals   and    envoys   to    Leghorn, 
281  ;   unable  himself  to  go  to  Leg- 
horn, receives  proposals  of  the  car- 
dinals there,  2S2  ;  returns  from  Porto 
Venere  to  Spain,  282-3  '  convokes  a 
Council  at  Perpignan,  283  ;  declines 
the   invitation    of    the   cardinals   to 
their  Council,  and  summons  his  own 
cardinals    to    Perpignan,    288  ;    his 
attitude  considered,  289-90  ;  D'Aiily 
and  Gerson  break  with  him,  291-2  ; 
his  Council  at  Perpignan,  312-5  ;  his 
adherents  at  Perpignan,  320  ;  arrival 
of  his  ambassadors  at  the  Council  of 
Pisa  announced,  35S  ;  deposed  by  the 
Council,  365-6  ;  his  ambassadors  at 
the  Council,  370-2  ;  407. 
Pope  Bonifack  the  Eighth,  16-19,  24, 

27,  56-7,  163,  395- 
Pope  Boniface  the  Ninth,  42,  62, 
144  ;  election  of,  153  ;  wins  back 
the  papal  dominions,  154;  pecuniary 
exactionsof,  154;  overturestoFrance, 
156-7;  160,  162-3,  165,  168,  170, 
180 ;  receives  an  embassy  from  the 
three  Kings,  182-3  ;  also  from  the 
Diet  at  Frankfurt,  184,  185-7  ;  con- 
demns the  White  Penitents,  195  ; 
declaration  in  favour  of  Wenzel,  196; 
receives  communication  from  the 
Electors,  198  ;  confirms  the  election 
of  King  Rupert,  203  ;  his  attitude 
toward  cardinals,  210-11;  appoints 
Baldassare  Cossa  to  be  Legate  a 
latere  at  Bologna,  211,  217;  ratifies 
treaty  with  Milan,  219  ;  receives 
ambassadors  from  Pope  Benedict, 
230-1  ;  death  and  character,  231-2; 


241,  251,  295,  307,  319,  340,  347, 
354.  400. 

Poi'i-;  Cki.kstine  the  Fifth,  38. 

PoPK  Ci.EMtNT  the  Fifth,  22-3,  26-7, 
57,  62,  87,  395. 

Pope  Clkmenp  the  Sixth,  23,  25-6, 
31,  60-2,  87,  93,  163,  170,  190,  216. 

Pope  Clement  the  Seventh,  58,  62, 
106-8;  election  of,  ui  ;  112-14  ;  re- 
cognition in  France,  115;  recognises 
the  adoption  of  the  Duke  of  Anjou, 
125;  131-3,  136,  139,  146-9,  154-8; 
death  of,  158;  159,  174,  182,  209, 
214,  247,  254,  269,  340. 

Pope  Gregory  the  Sixth,  7. 

Pope  Gregory  the  Seventh,  7-10,  17, 
36,  38,  55,  66. 

Pope  Gregory  the  Ninth,  13-15,  138, 

394- 

Pope  Gregory  the  Eleventh,  105,  107, 
167,  249,  340. 

Pope  Gregory  the  Twelfth,  59,  168-9, 
245  ;  his  election,  249  ;  his  nephews, 
250 ;  his  initial  good  resolutions, 
250-1,  253,  255-6;  delays  sending 
his  embassy,  252 ;  agrees  to  meet 
his  rival  at  Savona,  253-5  '  remains 
in  Rome,  260 ;  meets  the  French 
ambassadors  and  those  of  Pope  Bene- 
dict, 261-4;  his  final  reply,  264-5; 
writes  to  the  King  of  France,  265  ; 
moves  to  Sant  Angelo  because  of  a 
plot,  266 ;  goes  to  Siena,  267  ;  his 
action  there,  267-8;  his  ambassadors 
at  Savona,  268  ;  comes  to  Lucca, 
268,  272  ;  thwarts  all  proposals  for 
a  meeting,  273-4;  on  hearing  of  the 
capture  of  Rome  breaks  off  negotia- 
tions, 276 ;  creates  new  cardinals, 
277  ;  is  deserted  by  nine  of  the  old 
cardinals,  278  ;  leaves  Lucca,  284  ; 
calls  a  Council,  284  ;  invited  to  the 
Council  of  Pisa,  287  ;  his  attitude 
considered,  2S9-90  ;  Naples  and 
Rimini  remain  loyal,  292  ;  the  atti- 
tude of  Germany,  of  Wenzel,  and 
of  Sigismund  to  him,  293-5  5  of 
Ladislas,  297-300 ;  Florence  sends 
envoys,  301-2;  Gregory  issues  a 
Bull  against  Baldassare  Cossa,  303  ; 
Florence  withdraws  its  obedience, 
304  ;  relations  with  Hungary,  307  ; 
his  protest  to  Carlo  Malatesia,  308  ; 
negotiations  with  the  cardinals,  310; 
his  Council  at  Cividale,  31520; 
defended  by  the  German  envoys  and 
by  Carlo  Malatesta  at  Pisa,  346-53  ; 
fjuestion  of  his  hertsy,  362  ;  deposed 

[      by  the  Council  of  Pisa,  365-6  ;  the 

I      greater  part  of  Germany  renounces 


420    IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  COUNCILS 


his  obedience,  383 ;  Venice  and  Sigis- 
mund  renounce  obedience,  385-6 ; 
404,  407. 

Pope  Innocent  the  Second,  65. 

Pope  Innocent  the  Third,  11-12,  17, 
36-7,  55-6,  84,  86. 

Pope  Innocent  theFourth,  15-16, 394. 

Pope  Innocent  the  Sixth,  42,  62. 

Pope  Innocent  the  Seventh,  67,  168, 
210,  226  ;  elected  Pope,  232  ;  calls 
a  council,  233,  240  ;  his  fatal  con- 
cession to  King  Ladislas,  233 ; 
escapes  from  Rome  to  Viterbo,  239  ; 
his  death,  240,  242,  244 ;  the  news 
received,    247-8  ;    250-1,    253,   261, 

295>  303.  319.  347.  400,  404- 

Pope  John  the  Eighth,  4. 

Pope  John  the  Twelfth,  5-6. 

Pope  John  the  Twenty-second,  17, 
23-3i>  35.  60,  87,  91,  104,  133,  138, 
221,  286,  361,  395. 

Pope  John  the  Twenty-third.  See 
Cossa,  Baldassare. 

Pope  Leo  the  Third,  2-3,  13,  21. 

Pope  Leo  the  Ninth,  7. 

Pope  Nicholas  the  Great,  4. 

Pope  Nicholas  the  Third,  86. 

Pope  Nicholas  the  Fifth,  38. 

Pope  Paschal  the  Second,  10,  42. 

Pope  Stephen  the  Tenth,  7. 

Pope  Sylvester  the  First,  3. 

Pope  Sylvester  the  Second,  3. 

Pope  Urban  the  Fourth,  15,  38. 

Pope  Urban  the  Fifth,  61,  102,  105. 

Pope  Urban  the  Sixth,  62,  64,  103  ; 
election  of,  108  ;  character  and  early 
proceedings  of,  109-111  ;  the  obedi- 
ence of,  II2-5  ;  his  quarrel  with 
Naples,  125;  131-2,  145,  147-9; 
death  of,  153,  156,  163,  167-8,  174, 
213-4,  232,  249,  262,  295,  312,  319, 

347.  354,  404- 
Pope  Victor  the  Second,  7. 
Portogruario,  Antonius  Pancera  de. 

Patriarch  of  Aquileia,  316,   319-20, 

369- 
Porto  Venere,  246,  268,  271-3,  326, 

354.  362. 
Prades,     Jacques    de,    Constable    of 

Aragon,  275. 
Prague,  102-3  '■>  University  of,  32,  36, 

133,  285  ;  its  constitution  changed  by 

King  Wenzel,  295-7. 
Prignano,   Bartolommeo.      See  Pope 

Urban  the  Sixth. 
Publicani  or  Paulicians,  82-3. 


Raban,  Bishop,  68,  4c 
Radewin,  Florentius, 
Ranieri  Zacci,  325. 


-9,  lOI. 


Rectors,  72. 

Reims,  meeting  of  the  Kings  of  France 

and  Germany  at,  185. 
Rense,    meeting    of   the    Electors    at 

(1338),  24;   election  at,   120;   Diet 

at,  138. 
Reynolds,    Walter,    Archbishop    of 

Canterbury,  67. 
Richard  of  Cornwall,  16. 
Rienzi,  57,  87. 
Robert  of  Franzola,  294. 
Robert  of  Geneva,  Cardinal.   See  Pope 

Clement  the  Seventh. 
Robert  le  Mennot,  'the  Hermit,'  182-3, 

261,  361. 
Rome,  i-io,  13,  18,  21,  23,  29,  56-8, 

61-2,  72,  87,  102,  107-8,  III,  115, 

131,  139-41,  144.  153-4.  156,  161-5, 

167-9,  180,  182-4,  187,  194-7,  228, 

230,  232-4,  239-40,  248,  252-3,  259, 

264-7,    272,    274-6,    297-300,    305, 

391-2. 
Rosso,  Martino,  310. 
Rouen,  revolt  of  the  coppersmiths,  130. 
RoussE,  Jean,  133,  285. 
Roye,  Guy  de.  Archbishop  of  Reims, 

334-5.  351.  368. 
Rudolf,  Elector  of  Saxony,  196-8. 
Rupert  the  First,  196  ;   the  Second, 

195. 
Rural  Deans,  71. 
RUYSBROEK,  John,  94,  96,  98. 

Saint  Denys,  Abbe  of.     See  Villette. 

Salerno,  9  ;  University  of,  53. 

Saluces,  Cardinal  de,  340,  343,  390. 

Salva,  Martin  de.  Cardinal  of  Pampe- 
luna,  172,  194,  205. 

Sarzana,  325-7  ;  peace  conference  at, 
106. 

Savelli,  Baptista,  239,  392,  398. 

Savelli,  Paolo,  210. 

Savona,  228,  234,  246,  251,  253-5,258. 

Sbinko,  Archbishop  of  Prague,  318, 
401. 

Scotland,  113,  377,  380. 

Scriptores,  167. 

Sforza  Attendolo,  215,  306,  327-9, 
391-2,  398. 

Siena,  213,  216,  251,  253,  267-9,  284, 
289,  303-6,  378. 

Sigismund,  King  of  Hungary,  53, 
119-20,  131,  142,  181,  202-3,  267, 
292,  294-5,  298,  304  ;  his  attitude  to 
the  Council  of  Pisa,  307-9 ;  receives 
invitations  from  the  Cardinals,  309  ; 
negotiations  with  Carlo  Malatesta  and 
Venice  anent  the  Council,  309-11  ; 
abandons  Pope  Gregory,  385-6  ;  his 
war  against   the  Turks,   307,   401  ; 


INDEX 


421 


the  future    foe   of    Pope    John    the 

Twenty-third,  409. 
Stekankschi,  Cardinal,  299,  364,  402. 
Steno,  Michele,  Doge  of  Venice,  202, 

385. 
Society  in  the  Middle  Ages,  126. 

Tagi.iacozzo,  Battle  of,  15. 
Tanguy  du  Chatel,  390,  392. 
Tarracona,  Archbishop  of,  371. 
Tauler,  John,  94. 
TEiiALnESCHl,  Cardinal,  109,  iii. 
Teutonic  Order  of  Knights,  1 17. 
Theology  and  the  Canon  Law,  150. 
Thomas  a  Kempis,  100. 
Thurv,  de,  Cardinal,  192,  253,  255-7, 

281,  340,  352,  370,  373,  376,  393- 
Thury,    Philippe   de,    Archbishop   of 

Lyons,  372. 
ToMACELi,!,  Pietro.    See  Pope  Boniface 

the  Ninth. 
Toulouse,    University   of,    179,    1S7, 

203-4,  235,  245,  2S0,  363. 
Translation  of  the  Empire,  12,  21. 
Troja,  Count  of,  239-40,  302,  391-2, 

39S-9- 

Udine,  310,  316. 
Ugolino  of  Cremona,  218. 
Uguccione,  Francesco,  Archbishop  of 

Bordeaux,  321,  345. 
Ulrich,  Bishop  of  Verden,  346,  383. 
Universitas  Citramontanornm  and  Ul- 

tramontanonim  at  Bologna,  1 51. 
Ursins,  Juvenal  des,  235. 

Vanello  da  Montefalco,  226. 
Venice,  249,  267,  272,  274,  300 ;  its 

negotiations  concerning  the  Council, 

309-10,  385. 
Verme,  Jacopo  del,  145,  201,  212,  215. 
Vicars,  parish  priests,  73-5- 
Villa  Franca,  245,  283. 
Villeneuve,  177-8,  254-5. 
ViLLETTE,  Philippe  de.  Abbe  of  Saint 

Denys,  258. 
ViSCONTI — 

the  house  of,  211. 

Bernabo,  106,  148,  211  ;  captured  by 
his  nephew,  212,  218. 


Filippo  Maria,  226. 

Gabriel  Maria,  226,  233,  324-7. 

Galeazzo  the  Second,  211. 

Gian  Galeazzo,  148,  161-2,  195,  197, 

200-2  ;  death  of,  202,  216;  210-6, 

241. 
Giovanni  Maria,  217-9,  226. 
Giovanni  of  Ollegio,  213. 
Valentine,  Duchess  of  Orleans,  I18-9, 

148,  269,  382-3. 

VlTERBO,  253,  267,  276. 

Viviers,  Cardinal  of,  404. 

Waldenses,  84,  88-9,  93. 
Waldo,  Peter,  82,  84. 
'Ways'  proposed  for  terminating  the 
Great  Schism  ;  namely — 
the  '  way  of  fact,'  chap.  iv. 
the  '  way  of  compromise '  or  arbi- 
tration, 157,  178. 
the  '  way  of  cession '  backed  by  'sub- 
traction of  obedience,'  chap.  v. 
the  '  way  of  convention  '  or  discus- 
sion, 177,  iSi,  228,  chap.  vii. 
the  '  way  of  a  council,'  131 -3,  I57> 
181,  chap.  X. 
Wenzel,  brother  of  Charles  the  Fourth, 

32. 
Wenzel  of  Bohemia,  53. 
Wenzel,  King  of  the  Romans.      See 

Emperors. 
Werner,  Archbishop  of  Trier,  196-8. 
White  Penitents,  the,  194-5. 
WiLHELMlNA  of  Bohemia,  S6-7. 
William,  Archbishop  of  Cologne,  61. 
William  the  Norman,  Bishop  of  Todi, 

252. 
William  of  Ockham,  30,   133,  135, 

137-8. 
William  of  Prato,  309-10. 
WiNDESHEiM,  monastery  at,  loi. 
WiNKELERS,  the,  93. 
Worms,  Concordat  of,  10. 
Wyclik,  John,  30,   67,  72,  79,  81-3, 

89-90,  104,  134-6. 

Zagabriga,  Bishop  of  Lerida,  253. 
Zeno,  Carlo,  262. 
ZoNCHio,  battle  of,  262. 


'>A 


Printed  by  T.  and  A.  Constablk,  Printers  to  His  Majesty 
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